“Tape” Sticks Around

I’ve written before on this blog about how the word “tape” continues to be used in this digital era to mean “recording,” both as a noun and a verb.

I was struck again by this yesterday when on NPR a correspondent kept referring to the video confession the Austin bomber left on his cellphone as a “tape.”

I decided to look for other examples. Here are just a few out of many:

CNN:
The man suspected in a series of bombings in Austin, Texas is dead, after he confessed on tape and set off an explosive in his car during a police chase.

www.fox4news.com:
Austin serial bomber left behind confession tape

The Daily Caller:
Austin Police discovered a confession tape from the bombing suspect where he detailed how he made the bombs, the police chief said Wednesday.

The National:
The man suspected in a series of bombings in Austin, Texas is dead, after he confessed on tape and set off an explosive in his car during a police chase.

Sean Hannity:
BOMBER’S CONFESSION: Austin MADMAN Left Behind 25 MINUTE Confession Tape

New York Post:
Austin bomber left videotaped confession, police say

Newser:
[In this case “cellphone recording” is used in the subhead to the story, but in its body the writers resort to “tape.” Clearly they didn’t do this to save space since it’s usually in headlines that shorter words are preferred.]

Cops Find ‘Confession’ From Austin Bombing Suspect
25-minute cellphone recording found with Mark Conditt
Police have discovered a 25-minute recording on a cellphone found with bombing suspect Mark Conditt, and Austin Police Chief Brian Manley says he considers it a “confession,” the AP reports. He said at a news conference Wednesday that Conditt talks on the recording in great detail about the differences among the bombs he built. Manley says the tape is "the outcry of a very challenged young man."

I suspect the source of the above and many other stories is a much-quoted passage from an Associated Press story, quoted by Fox News and many other news outlets:

ROUND ROCK, Texas (AP) — Police have discovered a 25-minute recording on a cellphone found with bombing suspect Mark Conditt and Austin Police Chief Brian Manley says he considers it a "confession."

Manley says at a news conference that Conditt talks on the recording in great detail about the differences among the bombs he built.

He says that the tape is “the outcry of a very challenged young man.”

In fact Manley consistently called it a “recording,” not a “tape.”

You can hear him at the press conference, five minutes in. The rest consists mostly of officials congratulating each others’ agencies, none of them mentioning the recording.

But during the question-and-answer period though one male reporter calls it a “video recording.” a female reporter uses the word “tape.”

So it looks like that one reference perhaps triggered the word “tape” in the AP writer’s brain and he or she associated it with the police chief’s presentation. And voilà, it’s all over the newsscape.