Over here http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZTJhMjA1MDZiNDkzYTE0MzI0NmI2MjdiMTNiMDBhYTg=
at National Review Online, Tom Gross asks the following questions:
So why are so many prominent Western media reluctant to call the perpetrators terrorists? Why did Jon Snow, one of Britain’s most respected TV journalists, use the word practitioners when referring to the Mumbai terrorists? Was he perhaps confusing them with doctors?
Why did Reuters describe the motivation of the terrorists, which it preferred to call gunmen, as unknown? Were we meant to suppose that it might have been just anything — that to paraphrase Mark Steyn, they were perhaps disgruntled former employees of Lehman Bros embarking on an exciting midlife career change?
Again, why did Britain’s highly regarded Channel 4 News state that the militants showed a wanton disregard for race or creed when exactly the opposite was true: Targets and victims were very carefully selected.
Why did the “experts” invited to discuss the Mumbai attacks in one show on the state-funded Radio France Internationale, the voice of France around the world, harp on about Baruch Goldstein (who carried out the Hebron shootings in 1994), virtually the sole case of a Jewish terrorist in living memory?
But what are we to think when even such a renowned publication as the Times of London feels the need to refer to terrorists as “militants”, rather than calling them by their right name?
What is the motivation of journalists in trying to mangle language?
Dear Mr. Gross, the answer to all of the above questions is, because they are cowards.
Do they somehow wish to express sympathy for these murderers, or perhaps make their crimes seem almost acceptable?
The answer to this question is twofold. 1) they wish to assure the murderers that they are not their enemy, in effect saying, “Please don’t hurt me, I’m not a threat to you.”
And 2) It’s even more unspeakable than that, they admire them. A coward doesn’t like living in a state of fear, no one does. “Ah, but if only I could make people fear me like they do…”
Eric Hoffer said, a strategy of the weak is to hint at their capacity for evil.
How are we going to effectively confront terrorists when we can’t even identify them as such?
Answer: We aren’t.
Does the New York Times think that the seeking out and murder by Muslim terrorists of the only New York rabbi in Mumbai and his wife was an accidental target?
Answer: No, they’re lying. But it’s the lie of cowards, the comforting lie they first tell themselves, over and over, until they believe it.
Happy to be of service Mr. Gross. Please feel free to ask my help with these conundrums anytime.
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