By Dave Andrusko
Aleksander Dikov and Yingyi Li-Dikov
On Tuesday we talked about the New York Times’ schizophrenic “fetus/baby” usage in the same story. (“Fetus/Baby”–Another Schizophrenic New York Times news story”)
The story of the tragic accidental death over the weekend of a mother and her six-month-old unborn baby girl bounced from ‘fetus’ to ‘baby’ when the story (or photo captions) didn’t ignore the little girl altogether. While the Times caromed from treating the baby as an “it” to a real member of the family, the husband, Aleksandar Dikov, had no such confusions. As the story ends, we read this:
On Monday afternoon, Mr. Dikov ducked under yellow caution tape to the site of his wife’s death. The tree still lay across the splintered bench. His parents beside him, he laid flowers down while wearing his National Guard uniform.
“His sobs filled the air of the quiet park.
“’I was looking forward to having a baby,’ he said later. ‘Having a baby girl.’”
But, you might ask yourself, maybe that having-it-both-ways approach was the way any (or at least most) outlet would have covered the deaths of Yingyi Li-Dikov and her baby. So I looked and found this from ABC 7 in New York.
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The headline on their online story left no doubt that the lives of more than one individual had been snuffed out: “Pregnant woman killed when tree branch falls in Queens.”
Not a single “fetus” reference to be found anywhere but many references such as
· “The first time they took a sonogram, Aleksandar joked his daughter looked just like him.”
· “He is questioning if he’ll ever heal from his double loss.”
· “A huge tree branch suddenly fell and killed her and her baby…”
· “The couple liked the name Christine for their baby paired with a Chinese name that means moonlight.”
So, the answer is a touching account of this double tragedies did not have to play semantic games to hide the humanity of baby Christine. Hats off to ABC 7.