Ratko Mladic — sentenced to life for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, above all for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys — died in custody on August 27 and was buried in Belgrade on Monday, coffin wrapped in the Serbian flag, thousands attending, full military honours, the EU publicly appalled. One event. Now: what do you call the man in the headline? The first noun an outlet reaches for tells you whether it thinks history is settled. * Al Jazeera didn't hesitate: "Convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic gets hero's burial in Serbia." That headline is doing exactly what a headline should — holding both facts of the day in one line, the verdict and the veneration, and letting the friction between them be the story. That friction IS the story. * CNN, same instinct: "War criminal Ratko Mladić to receive full military honors in funeral as crowds gather." Verdict first, honours second, so the reader meets the contradiction in the right order. * NBC News produced the day's accidental poetry: "Body of war criminal Mladic lies in state in Serbian capital ahead of funeral." 'Lies in state' is the grammar of presidents and monarchs; 'war criminal' is the grammar of The Hague. Four words apart in one headline — the entire controversy, compressed. * France 24 went with "Thousands bid farewell to Bosnian Serb war criminal in Belgrade." 'Bid farewell' is a warm phrase for a genocide conviction — it's what you do at retirement parties — but the epithet survived, and in this crowd that turns out to be the pass mark. * Then there's RT: "Ratko Mladic funeral draws thousands in Belgrade." Read it again. No conviction. No genocide. No Srebrenica. A name and a crowd size — the framing you'd use for a beloved folk singer. In the body he becomes the "former Bosnian Serb military commander," the story becomes Serbia "rejecting EU accusations" of glorification, and the burial happens "without state honors" — which is Belgrade's official line, delivered while an army honour guard fired a salute over the flag-draped coffin and serving ministers stood in the crowd. * So the spectrum, left to right: 'convicted war criminal' → 'war criminal' → 'war criminal' → 'war criminal' → nothing at all. Four outlets put the verdict in the headline because the verdict is what makes the funeral news. Strip it out and you're left covering attendance — which is precisely the point of stripping it out. Big crowd, big love, questions about the guest of honour left at the door. * One more detail from the guest list: Russia's ambassador to Serbia attended the funeral. RT is funded by the Russian government. The ambassador came dressed for the occasion, and so did the headline.