by Frances Taylor

Created on: July 20, 2008

The word terrorist can and should be used by the media as a way to describe a perpetrator of acts of terrorism. Terrorism is real, and terrorists are real. The word can be used objectively in many cases. A bombing in a subway, bus, mosque or synagogue is terrorism. Vigilantism against one population by another often results in acts of terrorism, no matter how righteous one side might be.

Where the media gets into trouble is labeling an entire religious, ethnic or social group as terrorists. A person who murders innocent people in pursuit of his or her own political or social cause is a terrorist. A person who shares the same racial, cultural or ethnic background as a group of people who have committed terrorist acts is not.

There are people who deride the press for not labeling all members of a religious group terrorists, claiming that this is a case of political correctness. The press should not resort to such labels out of fear they will be called liberal, biased or even terrorist sympathsizers. This needs to be seen for what it is - an attempt to control the message and intimidate the messenger. The ability to sort through the fog of controversy is what the press is there to do.

What the media needs to refrain from is legitimizing political or social bias against a group of people by insinuating that everyone in a Palestinian refugee camp, or a city like Fallujah or in the mountains of Afghanistan is a terrorist. Such generalizations make it more difficult for the media to do its real job, which is to provide information of greater depth in order for society to achieve an understanding of the complexity of issues that are at hand. It also makes it more difficult for the society that must make decisions to be truly informed.

What gets tricky who gets called a terrorist and who doesn't in case where both sides engage in similar behavior. Is it terrorism to kill large numbers of people who live in the same area as known a terrorist organization? Is it terrorism to target a population based on geography and ethnicity and kill them before some people among them who are terrorists kill you? Is it self-defense in one case, and terrorism in another?

It's not the press job to engage in political correctness, and it is likewise its not the press job to make acts that would be terrorism if committed by one group a virtue when its committed by another.

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