I agree that it’s lazy copy editing. “Allegedly” is used in the newspaper business as a magic “get out of any libel suit” word.
However, I don’t think it’s necessarily safe for the news flat report that Trump “did” the thing. They can report on what Carroll says he did (those are the allegations). And they can report that a jury determined it’s more likely than not that he did the thing.
This is a situation where explaining it correctly requires several more words than the editors wanted to spare.
I agree that it’s lazy copy editing. “Allegedly” is used in the newspaper business as a magic “get out of any libel suit” word.
However, I don’t think it’s necessarily safe for the news flat report that Trump “did” the thing. They can report on what Carroll says he did (those are the allegations). And they can report that a jury determined it’s more likely than not that he did the thing.
This is a situation where explaining it correctly requires several more words than the editors wanted to spare.