Who Killed Bin Laden? ‘We’ Did or ‘They’ Did

Written by Pat's Papers | Wednesday, 11 May 2011 10:30 AM

It’s not a question of ‘us’ versus ‘them’ in today’s Chicago Tribune, it’s one of ‘we’ versus ‘they’. Specifically, which one is correct when describing the killing of Osama bin Laden. We (at Pat’s Papers) pointed out several instances in the days following bin Laden’s death in which they (newspaper editors) chose to use the collective ‘we’ as their pronoun of choice. But is it correct? Linguists disagree about the correct usage and say, in the context of bin Laden’s death, it’s more an issue of “collective identity” rather than one of grammar.

Bill Mayer was more direct in a recent episode of “Politically Incorrect.” He told his audience: “New rule: Stop saying ‘we’ got Osama. We didn’t do anything. We were watching ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ and eating Funyuns in our sweatpants.”

See our ‘we’ round up of front pages from around the country

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