since Donald Trump After being convicted of 34 felonies, happy headlines emerged in the media that gave the former president a new description: “felon.”
The New York Times editorial board condemned him Simple banner: “Donald Trump, felon.”
Analysis by Aaron Black, senior political reporter for The Washington Post headline News: “Trump is a felon. That's why this could matter in the 2024 race.
Even the New York Post published a sympathetic quip on its front page, “injustice”, with a subtitle calling him “the first felon president.”
Trump has spent much of his career delaying and avoiding judicial proceedings. Of course, part of the impetus behind the sudden widespread use of the term “felon” is to disparage Trump and label him the same as a common criminal. This is where the problem lies.
Most people in U.S. prisons live in poverty and discrimination. Labels like “felon” or “prisoner” place them on the margins of society.
I'm president of The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization dedicated to covering criminal justice in America. We don't endorse candidates or political views, but we believe journalism can make our legal system more fair, effective, transparent and humane. Achieving this requires reporting on those charged and convicted as ordinary people. It starts with the language we use.
AP's new version of Impact style manualPublished exactly one day before Trump's conviction, it explicitly states, “Do not use felon, criminal, or ex-con as nouns.” Instead, the style manual advises reporters to “use human-centered language when possible to describe people who are incarcerated or People in Prison.” The manual includes a chapter on criminal justice that references the Marshall Plan.
Labels marginalize people. They turn moving verbs into fixed nouns. They dehumanize and conquer. As my colleague Lawrence Bartley wrote in a touching essay, “I am not your 'prisoner,'” the word fell on his ears like black letters.
The language of “people first” is a concept borrowed from the disability rights movement. We should use it whenever possible, but in the beautifully clear words of editor Akiba Solomon, who oversees our word-choice guidance, “Journalism is a clear discipline.” Journalists shouldn't use jargon. People need to understand what exactly we are writing about.
At the same time, language can and should change.
Trump does not come from the fringes of society. Wealthy and powerful, he was convicted of 34 felonies. Why should the media treat him like any other convicted felon?
By calling Trump a “felon,” we risk reviving a term that fell out of favor for good reason.
Trump is a convicted felon. So do millions of other Americans. How we describe him affects them too.