Let's talk scare quotes for a moment.
Regular GetReligion readers know what we mean when we use that term.
But in case you're new to this nerdy journalism site focused on mass media coverage of religion news, click here to review past examples.
I bring up this topic again today because of a note I received from a regular reader, who opined:
Notice how whenever the Left invents a new phrase, the media adopt it immediately and uncritically, while well-known, long-understood and uncontroversial words and phrases get scare quotes? Oh, of course you do.
"Aid-in-dying" gets no scare quotes, while "religious freedom" always does?
The reader included a link to a San Francisco Chronicle story:
Actually, the Chronicle lede does include scare quotes — just not around the phrase 'aid-in-dying":
SACRAMENTO — The California Medical Association has become the first state medical association in the nation to drop opposition to what has long been known as “physician-assisted suicide,” it said, acknowledging a shift in doctor and patient attitudes about end-of-life and aid-in-dying options.
The move comes as the doctors organization removed its opposition Wednesday to a controversial aid-in-dying bill that would allow terminally ill Californians to end their lives with doctor-prescribed drugs.
The medical association recently changed its internal policies so that it is neutral on the issue, deleting language that referred to aid in dying as “physician-assisted suicide.” The group has long opposed aid in dying on grounds that it violates doctors’ ethical and moral obligations to provide the best treatment possible.
So why does "physician-assisted suicide" demand quote marks, while "aid-in-dying" does not?
Like the San Francisco paper, the Los Angles Times presents "aid-in-dying" with no scare quotes:
Last year, though, the Times did use quote marks around "aid in dying":
The Los Angeles newspaper has varied, too, on scare quotes — or not — on "religious freedom":
Back to the reader's original question: In the case of "aid-in-dying," does the lack of scare quotes reflect media bias? Or is there a legitimate journalistic reason why "physician-assisted suicide" or "religious freedom" might get the scare quote treatment while "aid-in-dying" does not?
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