The crime of Mocejón and the difference between dying and being murdered for some media

Today, Spain has been shocked by the murder of an 11-year-old boy in the town of Mocejón (Toledo), at the hands of a man.

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The information circulating at this time (the crime was committed around 10:00 in the morning) indicates that the murderer was hooded and repeatedly attacked the child with a sharp object when the child and other friends were playing football at the "Ángel Tardío" Municipal Field. He allegedly fled in a car, specifically an old Ford Mondeo. The Civil Guard is trying to capture him. I hope that the murderer is arrested and that the full weight of justice falls on him. My hug and my condolences to the child's family, I do not want to imagine the hell they must be living through at this moment.

There is one thing that has caught my attention in the vast majority of the news I have read about this crime. Let us look, for example, at the headline published by the website of Televisión Española (a public channel supported by all taxpayers):

• "An 11-year-old boy dies after being stabbed by a hooded man on a football pitch in Mocejón, Toledo."

RTVE headlines change when murders have another type of victim. Let's look at some recent examples:

• July 17: "A woman murdered in Alicante, presumed fifth victim of gender violence in 48 hours."
• July 14: "Three women murdered in Salou, Sabadell and Madrid in alleged cases of gender violence."
• July 6: "A woman was murdered in the Malaga municipality of Antequera in a possible sexist crime."

On August 6, RTVE also put this in a news story: "The Israeli army has killed four people in southern Lebanon early Tuesday morning and at least 12 others in the West Bank in the last 24 hours." The headline changes radically in style when Hamas terrorists commit a massacre against unarmed civilians. RTVE reported on October 8: "At least 260 bodies found in the desert where a festival was being held when Hamas burst in shooting.". The verb "murder" is not used even once in the entire text of the news item.

I don't know what some media outlets know or imagine about the -as yet- unknown perpetrator of the crime of Mocejón, but it is striking that in the face of a clear murder, the verb to murder is omitted in certain cases. Is there any special interest in toning down certain headlines, perhaps so that they don't cause alarm? I understand that it is said that a child "dies" if the child has suffered a cardiac arrest, but not if he has been stabbed repeatedly. This is clearly a murder.

The most astonishing thing is that in Europe we are getting used to this type of crime, which was previously purely exceptional. In February 2023, the newspaper El Debate reported that knife attacks have skyrocketed by 35% between 2018 and 2022 in Spain. It was also news today that a 16-year-old boy has been stabbed in Madrid and is in a serious condition. This is a crime for which five minors have been arrested. Under normal conditions, this should cause alarm among governments and the media. Instead, what we see are headlines downplaying a crime so that it does not look like murder.

What is it about certain crimes that makes some media outlets decide to downplay them? What factor is it that leads many media outlets to downplay their tone when talking about these crimes, while at the same time trying to raise awareness about the murders of women? Well, the reason is not difficult to guess. I can say that Israel has been putting up with these types of crimes by Palestinian terrorists for years, without the vast majority of Western media giving importance to these stabbings. Now we have the problem here.

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Image: Google Stree View. The "Ángel Tardío" Municipal Football Field in Mocejón, where the murder of the 11-year-old boy was committed.