This is something that has bothered me for a long time and I have been recently reminded of it.

News stories that use the word "only" when describing fatalities.

The stores from the bridge collapse are now stating something like "only eight people died" as opposed to the thirty or so estimated. Only? It isn't only to the families of those eight people.

You see this during the holidays too. Newscasters will report, "Only twelve people died on the roads this weekend, a decrease from thirty last year." Or "Only ten people died in traffic accidents this holiday weekend, experts had predicted twenty would die."

Just report the number without the "only". Geesh.

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I see your point, but I also understand why they do it. Didn't we all fear that dozens of people would be killed in the bridge collapse? With that mindset, I see why the newscasters say "only" eight died. But I also agree with you -- those eight were precious to the people they left behind and there's nothing "only" about them.

My 8 yr old DS brought this up the other morning while we were listening to the news reports......A few months ago we had a discussion about this EXACT same thing...something bad happened and the news reports said ONLY 5 DEAD, well DS comments how it was "only 5 not bad" I was like well....what if that 5 was Your mom, brother, grandparents and great-grandma?? He never looked at it like that!

I agree - there is no only when someone loses a family member or friend.

cj/

PS - tessa, how's that baby doing?

How should they say it when there is such a large disaster that could have killed over 100? I understand what you are saying but I also understand the media. It seems a miracle that "only" 5 were killed. Fox news has been pretty sensitive in their wording. They usually mention that even though the number is small it's not to the families who are suffering. Just not sure how they should word it.

They should just report the number of deaths and leave the 'only' out of it. To me, saying 'only' has a connotation of 'well it's merely 5'-- but 5 deaths is still 5 deaths.

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That reminds me of something Walter Cronkite used to say. He felt it was really insensitive of reporters to say something like "Over 100 were killed in the attack..." - if anyone was going to refer to the casualties, he believed that the number should be quoted "103 people were killed..."

This had never occured to me, but once it did, I agreed with him. And I also feel the same about what the op stated - the word 'only' is a poor choice in this case.

When things get really grim, sometimes you do start looking at crises as things that could have been worse, rather than problems in their own right. Still, you have to be in the right mindset to see it that way. I agree, just leaving it out would do no harm.