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Letter: What do you mean, ‘allegedly’?

(Rick Egan  |  The Salt Lake Tribune)    Brandon McCormick shouts at protesters after he was beaten up for allegedly brandishing a bow and arrow, after driving his car into the crowd, Saturday, May 30, 2020.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Brandon McCormick shouts at protesters after he was beaten up for allegedly brandishing a bow and arrow, after driving his car into the crowd, Saturday, May 30, 2020.

The caption for your photo of Brandon McCormick, the man who threatened protesters with a bow and arrow and was beaten up for it, reads: “Brandon McCormick was beaten up by protesters after allegedly brandishing a bow and arrow at a protest Saturday.”

Both events were captured on video and confirmed by multiple witnesses, so how come one of them is stated as fact while the other only happened "allegedly"?

I suspect the answer is that you're worried the semi-literate racist — objective descriptors of McCormick's Facebook posts as quoted in your story — might sue you, but unnamed protesters probably won't.

Still, the way you frame these things matters, as you well know.

Eric D. Snider, Provo

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