Germany Christmas market attack: JD Vance schools media over obscure AP headline on Magdeburg car attack

“Who was driving the car,” asked US Vice President-elect JD Vance on Friday (local time) as he joined critics over the framing of the headline of the Germany Christmas market car attack, by prominent media organisations, including The Associated Press.

Vance’s response came after two died and 68 others were injured when Tayeb A, a 50-year-old Saudi doctor, was suspected of driving through a crowded Christmas market in a black BMW in Magdeburg. He was arrested at gunpoint after the terror attack.

The AP’s headline, ‘A car has driven into a group of people at a Christmas market in Germany’, fuelled a debate on social media over the use of passive language in headlines in cases where the suspect was already identified and arrested. On X, the headline was fact-checked by a community note, which clarified the matter.

“‘A car has driven’ implies the car drove itself, which is factually incorrect. A man from Saudi Arabia intentionally drove the car into the Christmas market as a terror attack,” the community note read.

Moreover, the backlash over the “misleading” headline intensified after verified footage showed the suspect being pinned to the ground by a policeman near the damaged car following the attack.

Vance extended his condolences to those who died and were injured in the assault. “Our prayers go to the people affected by this terrible attack on a Christmas market in Germany. What a ghastly attack so close to Christmas,” he tweeted.

SOCIAL MEDIA USERS LASH OUT AT AP

Most of the users responded that the suspect was a Saudi national and shared details about his background. Some of them even shared screenshots of the accused’s photos.

“Based on the AP’s reporting, we are to believe the helpless Saudi man in the driver’s seat was a victim of the car kidnapping him,” a user wrote.

Another one wrote, “Was it driverless? How did the car drive into a market intentionally all on its own? ‘Saudi Arabian terrorist drives car into market killing many’. Fixed it for you.”

A third user questioned whether guidelines were being followed by AP while publishing the news. “Isn’t it against your own guidelines to use passive voice like this?”

Billionaire Elon Musk, who is set to become Donald Trump’s advisor after the latter takes office next year, also jumped on the bandwagon, saying, “You don’t hate the lying legacy media enough.”

Another user shared his thoughts, writing, “Any time an article does not name the perpetrator, I know it’s a Muslim or person of colour (or both). If it is a white person, that name and photo are front and centre.”