Not even remotely relevant

Hawkeye · **Posted:** Thu Mar 27, 2003 9:14 pm

From a NYT service story about the fella who confessed to killing a Dutch politician last year:"Van der Graaf, an animal rights activist, ..." If this is relevant at all, (like if Fortuyn skinned cute bunnies for fun on the weekends) the reporter didn't follow up on it. Omit needless words.

ToddJBehme · **Posted:** Thu Mar 27, 2003 9:49 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Hawkeye:
From a NYT service story about the fella who confessed to killing a Dutch politician last year:"Van der Graaf, an animal rights activist, ..." If this is relevant at all, (like if Fortuyn skinned cute bunnies for fun on the weekends) the reporter didn't follow up on it. Omit needless words.<hr></blockquote>Seems like there's a good chance the writer was trying to illustrate a contrast: A guy worries about animals but is willing to kill a person.[ March 27, 2003: Message edited by: Todd J. Behme ]

Matthew Grieco · **Posted:** Thu Mar 27, 2003 9:53 pm

The reporter may not have followed up on it, but I think it is relevant. A liberal activist killed an arch-conservative politician, and he acknowledged in the courtroom that he killed Fortuyn over his political beliefs:"I saw him as a highly vindictive man who used feelings in society to boost his personal stature. The ideas he had about refugees, asylum seekers, the environment, animals...He was always using or abusing the weak side of society to get ahead." (Reuters)My paper is blacked out from the NYT News Service (our competition is NYT-owned), so I haven't seen their story, but the other versions I've read make the relevance clear.

rumymommy · **Joined:** Tue Aug 06, 2002 12:01 am **Posts:** 138

Lots of psychos belong to groups and have beliefs, that doesn't necessarily make those links relevant. That a murdering teen listens to heavy metal and wears black doesn't have anything to do with his actions. Sometimes the association is part of the story, as with pedophile priests or scout leaders, where their association put them in touch with their victims. In any case, the setup of "Bob Jones, an animal-rights activist, killed ..." lends itself to a link between his beliefs about animals and his criminal activity. The overwhelming majority of animal-rights activists are not murderers, and every murderer is not an animal-rights activist. If you decide the beliefs are relevant to the story, it should be supported by a quote or definitive information. In this example, I would have put a sentence that said the guy called himself an animal-rights activist after the quote where he talks about his displeasure with the politician's views pertaining to animals.

rumymommy · **Joined:** Tue Aug 06, 2002 12:01 am **Posts:** 138

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Todd J. Behme:
Seems like there's a good chance the writer was trying to illustrate a contrast: A guy worries about animals but is willing to kill a person.<hr></blockquote>Is anyone surprised when a hunter preaches the sanctity of human life, even though he'll kill an animal for sport?

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