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FAIR-L
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and activism
MEDIA ADVISORY:
"Terrorism" Is a Term that Requires Consistency:
Newspaper and its critics both show a double standard on "terror"
April 8, 2002
A group called Minnesotans Against Terrorism (MAT)-- which includes Gov.
Jesse Ventura, Sen. Paul Wellstone and other prominent political figures--
has condemned the Minneapolis Star Tribune for what it calls a "double
standard" on the use of the word "terrorism." But in fact, neither the
newspaper nor the organization applies the term "terrorism" in a
consistent way-- a problem that is widespread throughout U.S. media.
The organization's grievance against the Star Tribune is that the paper
says it avoids using the term "terrorist" in its reports on the Mideast
conflict. As the paper's assistant managing editor, Roger Buoen, explained
in a comment to the paper's ombudsman (2/3/02):
"Our practice is to stay away from characterizing the subjects of news
articles but instead describe their actions, background and identity as
fully as possible, allowing readers to come to their own judgments about
individuals and organizations.
"In the case of the term 'terrorist,' other words-- 'gunman,' 'separatist'
and 'rebel,' for example-- may be more precise and less likely to be
viewed as judgmental. Because of that we often prefer these more specific
words.
"We also take extra care to avoid the term 'terrorist' in articles about
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because of the emotional and heated
nature of that dispute."
This policy of avoiding the term "terrorism" in favor of more specific
descriptions is a defensible policy-- so long as it is applied
consistently. But Buoen went on to acknowledge that the paper does make
exceptions:
"However, in some circumstances in which non-governmental groups carry out
attacks on civilians, the term is permitted. For example, Al Qaeda is
frequently referred to by the Star Tribune and other news organizations as
a 'terrorist network,' in part because its members have been convicted of
terrorist acts and because it has been identified by the United States and
other countries as a terrorist organization."
Here the paper is making distinctions that are not defensible. First, to
limit "terrorism" to "nongovernmental groups" is an illogical restriction.
Does a plane being blown up stop being terrorism if it turns out that some
nation's intelligence agency secretly ordered its destruction? To make
such an arbitrary distinction over the use of a word with such powerful
connotations certainly doesn't sound like "allowing readers to come to
their own judgments." (The Star Tribune's ombudsman noted that the
Associated Press also reserves the word "terrorist" for non-governmental
groups.)
Similarly, to decide that it is all right to label Al Qaeda as a
"terrorist network," not because its specific actions fit a definition of
terrorism, but because the U.S. government has used that label in public
statements or in legal actions, is not allowing readers to make up their
minds but letting the state make up their minds for them.
Furthermore, the September 11 attacks are certainly an "emotional and
heated" subject-- probably more so than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
for most of the Star Tribune's readers. Since the reasons the paper cites
for calling Al Qaeda "terrorist" also apply to the Palestinian
organization Hamas, one can't help but wonder if the Star Tribune's
different treatment of these groups has to do with the greater degree of
outrage its readers would feel if the paper declined to use the term in Al
Qaeda's case.
So MAT has a point when it charges the paper with a double standard. But
the organization itself has a similar double standard when it comes to its
definition of terrorism. "Calling the targeted killing of innocent
civilians anything but terrorism is completely unconscionable," says Marc
Grossfield, the group's co-founder, in a press release (4/2/02). But do
they really mean it?
FAIR asked Grossfield if his organization would refer to the bombing of
Hiroshima as a terrorist act. "No, we would not," he responded. Yet it
would seem to fit MAT's definition precisely: Hiroshima was targeted
precisely because the city, lacking significant military targets, had
escaped previous bombing damage, so its destruction by a single bomb would
send the starkest possible message to Japan about the price the nation
would pay if it refused to surrender. So why isn't that targeting of
civilians, who died on a scale undreamed of by any suicide bomber,
considered to be terrorism?
"The use of weapons of mass destruction in WWII against an evil force who
had engaged in genocide is not something that this organization is willing
to judge," was MAT's official response.
So targeting civilians stops being terrorism when it's done to combat an
"evil force." Of course, you would be hard pressed to find anyone who
targeted civilians anywhere who did not consider the force they were
fighting to be "evil." This is a definition of terrorism that hinges on
whether or not one agrees with the reasons for killing civilians.
In fact, the only consistent definition of terrorism is based on the
deliberate killing of civilians to achieve political goals-- not on
whether the killers are backed by a state or not, and certainly not on the
methods they choose to use to kill their victims. A consistent definition,
however, is one that virtually no news organization would be willing to
use.
They would have to refer to the "terrorist" bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, to U.S. support for "terrorist" governments in Central America
that killed hundreds of thousands of civilians, to the U.S.'s "terrorist"
attacks on civilian infrastructure in Iraq and Yugoslavia. (The attacks on
water treatment facilities in Iraq alone have certainly-- and
deliberately-- killed more civilians than any Palestinian group; see The
Progressive, 9/01.)
And they would have to use the word "terrorism" to describe actions by
both sides in the Israeli-Palestian conflict. Consider a May 1996 report
from Human Rights Watch on Israel's tactics in Lebanon earlier that year:
"In significant areas in southern Lebanon whole populations-- indeed
anyone who failed to flee by a certain time-- were targeted as if they
were combatants.... The intention of the warnings that were broadcast and
subsequent shelling is likely to have been to cause terror among the
civilian population.... The IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] also executed
what appear to have been calculated direct attacks on purely civilian
targets.... The IDF at times hindered and even attacked ambulances and
vehicles of relief organizations, and carried out a number of attacks on
persons attempting to flee the area."
If news organizations are prepared to describe such tactics as terrorism,
then they should consistently apply the same term to non-governmental
groups that target civilians. If media are unwilling or unable to be
consistent, then they should, indeed, avoid the use of the word
"terrorism," instead describing specific activities and letting readers
make up their own minds what they should be called.
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