Posted on 12/14/2008 8:54:59 PM PST by mojito
In today's column, the New York Times' Public Editor, Clark Hoyt, examines the paper's use (or non-use) of the words "terrorist" and "terrorism." It's a revealing exercise:
"WHEN 10 young men in an inflatable lifeboat came ashore in Mumbai last month and went on a rampage with machine guns and grenades, taking hostages, setting fires and murdering men, women and children, they were initially described in The Times by many labels."
"They were "militants," "gunmen," "attackers" and "assailants." Their actions, which left bodies strewn in the city's largest train station, five-star hotels, a Jewish center, a cafe and a hospital -- were described as "coordinated terrorist attacks." But the men themselves were not called terrorists."
As we noted here, "suspected gunman" was another term that was bizarrely used to describe men with guns in their hands:
"The Mumbai terror attacks posed a familiar semantic issue for Times editors: what to call people who pursue political, religious, territorial, or unidentifiable goals through violence on civilians."
Generally speaking, the rest of us would call them "terrorists." We wouldn't necessarily wait for their "goals" to become "identifiable."
(Excerpt) Read more at powerlineblog.com ...
For the NY Times to claim to be so smart, they sure are dumb.
NYT also said the “gunmen” had killed “indiscriminately.” But by then we knew they had targeted Americans, Europeans and especially Jews. It’s not just agenda-driven, but it is idiotically awful reporting.
i’ve thought for years that the use of these words undermines
the u.s. military, while promoting the international left’s
idea of treating terrorism as criminality.
... just plain dishonest reporting.
That will be how they’ll be remembered.
... just plain dishonest reporting.
That will be how they’ll be remembered.
The Left is suicidal on one hand, and Marxist/totalitarian on the other.
I was always taught that reading newspapers was the “smart” thing to do...little did I know that every angle, every story and every detail is an ACLU-type editorial. Every fact is skewed, every non-hero is a hero and everything Anglo, Christian, heterosexual, family, church-going, military or traditonal is slighted and every non-white, family-hating, non-Christian, gay, single, atheist pacifist or “progressive” is exalted.
If you cannot see that the MSM is literally dying to be Communist then you need to open your eyes.
I grew on on the Washington Post and I rarely ever look at anything but sports or business in that rag. It suffers from the same derangement the Times does.
Hoyt actually concluded that he would use the word “terrorist” more readily than reporters and editors do. He does explain, though, that Hamas can’t be terrorists because they are a social welfare organisation.
Dunno who told him that. Patty Murray maybe, who thinks that the reason Osama is popular in the Moslem world is because he builds day-care centers so that liberated Wahhabi feminists can crack the mud & straw ceiling.
If we can join the Times in calling Hamas a social welfare league, maybe we can reclassify Benito Mussolini as a railway schedules consultant, and Adolf Hitler as a civil engineer — after all, he built a lot of highways, and was responsible for the greatest urban renewal project in the 20th Century.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
“They were “militants,” “gunmen,” “attackers” and “assailants.”
I suppose we’re lucky that the Times mustered the courage to go that far. In the case of Domestic Terrorist Bill Ayers the Times comically refers to him as a “Distinguished Educator.” Pinch and his ridiculous editorial board continue to run the paper into the ground.
btt
“If you cannot see that the MSM is literally dying to be Communist then you need to open your eyes.”
They aren’t. They are dying to get headlines so people will read their papers. Problem for them is “Blame Republicans” is not a very good business model as we all can see by their diminishing returns.
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