How the mainstream press views terrorists Filed under: Islamism Media bias— Jason Hayes @ 3:54 pm
Interesting to see how the mainstream press characterizes terrorists.

Daniel Pipes has given some typical examples in recent coverage of the Beslan hostage taking.

The press, however, generally shies away from the word terrorist, preferring euphemisms. Take the assault that led to the deaths of some 400 people, many of them children, in Beslan, Russia, on September 3. Journalists have delved deep into their thesauruses, finding at least twenty euphemisms for terrorists:

Assailants - National Public Radio
Attackers - the Economist
Bombers - the Guardian
Captors - the Associated Press
Commandos - Agence France-Presse refers to the terrorists both as “membres du commando” and “commando.”
Criminals - the Times (London)
Extremists - United Press International
Fighters - the Washington Post
Group the Australian
Guerrillas - in a New York Post editorial
Gunmen - Reuters
Hostage-takers - the Los Angeles Times
Insurgents - in a New York Times headline
Kidnappers - the Observer (London)
Militants - the Chicago Tribune
Perpetrators - the New York Times
Radicals - the BBC
Rebels - in a Sydney Morning Herald headline
Separatists - the Christian Science Monitor
Activists - the Pakistan Times

All blog content is used by permission, cited, or is © 2003-2004 Jason Hayes - hh@hayz.ws  ¶ 7:23 PM