Jim Tucker raises the lack of honorific accorded to Tony Veitch in the Dominion Post in a recent blog. He suggests with the exception of the Sunday Star Times, newspapers in Aotearoa only drop the honorific for sportspeople or criminals, after their first mention.
It definitely grates, that missing Ms/Miss/Mrs/Mr. The Sunday Star Times yesterday reported the shooting of May Ying in an attempted dairy robbery – referring to her as ‘Ying’, and her son Jason You as ‘You’.
The man threw a plastic bag at Ying for the cigarettes but instead she turned and made a dash for the alarm at the back of the shop.She managed only a couple of steps before he shot her….
You says he doesn’t think the attacker took anything from the dairy, but his injured mother lay on the floor for about five minutes before a second customer came in and called police.
The very same article goes on to call fellow dairy owners Khandu and Sonal Patel by their first names – presumably because they have the same last name – which could easily be dealt with by using an honorific as Khandu is male, and Sonal female.
In 1999 Khandu had his throat slit by a machete-wielding robber. He chased them down despite blood pouring down the front of his shirt.
Sonal says it is “shocking” that dairy owners in the area are forced to live in fear.
I hadn’t noticed this before in the Star Times. In this article, it feels disrespectful to May Ying and Jason You, and overfamiliar to Khandu and Sonal Patel.
LudditeJourno 
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