Murder-suicide "tragedy dad" possibly triggering

[BaronessBlonde]

Irish Independent
"Murder suicide tragedy as father kills both sons and their mother".

I clicked on this headline this morning- almost in disbelief.
After Alan Hawe, have they learned nothing?
This poor woman was murdered along with 2 of her children, by a man who is their father and her partner. But he comes first in the headline again.

Am I overreacting?

Not overreacting. They've still not learned. Letter to the editor pointing that out?

Hmmmm, I'm not a letter to the editor type person. Perhaps I ought to be.

My immediate and visceral reaction to the headline was fury; on behalf of this woman who is reduced to bystander in her own murder.

Actually, having looked more closely, I'm not sure the reporting is as bad as all that. They don't say anything about her behaviour triggering it, or praise him in any way.

They do report the words 'everyone loved him, we never thought he could do something like this'

If people say it I suppose they can report it. People need to start saying 'I'm horrified he did this- we clearly didn't know him at all'.

The headline is active voice rather than passive, it would rephrase as something like ' family murdered by suicidal father'. I'm not sure how to rephrase it to centre the family and still get a punchy headline.