If You Know the Sex, Use the Applicable Pronoun

A recent Orlando Sentinel story reported on the arrest of a reckless motorcycle rider. The writer carefully avoided mentioning the sex of the offender, referring to the “motorcyclist” and “rider”.

The report ended with:

Deputies eventually followed the rider to a local NAPA auto center where they were seen parking the motorcycle inside a repair bay and arrested them.

Who was parking the motorcycle? The deputies? Or the rider?

And while it really doesn’t matter if the rider was a man or woman, the attempt to hide it was clumsy, screaming for clarity, and incredibly sloppy editing.

Especially when this was in the middle of the story:

At one point, the rider “acknowledges” the aerial surveillance by putting both of his middle fingers up toward the helicopter’s camera.

Ah-ha! The rider is a male. Why not say so?

That’s When I Stopped Reading