unmasked assailants

In a tragically recurring, typically, predictably American phenomenon (conversely these past two months marked the first time in decades that there has not been a major school shooting being that the schools are closed), involving shoppers not abiding by emergency hygiene standards enforced to keep us all safe violently attacked the store employee who gently admonished them, we are reminded of the light, careful tread of the exonerative tense that news outlets, to shield themselves from legal liabilities often are trained to repair to.
This indirect tone is not the needed foil for the passive apology of public figures—mistakes were made—does not speak to the principles of being unbiased or non-prejudicial but rather—instead of holding people, in whatever capacity to account for their bad behaviour, gives reporting the swaggering, deputised tenor of police-procedurals and victim-blaming.