the all searching eye

While reading samplings of major media reports on the kidnapping of Christian Science Monitor journalist Jill Carroll, I was struck by the glaring absence of a certain word: terrorists. Everyone is avoiding labelling people who will plan and execute the kidnap of a young female reporter and the murder of her interpreter (two shots to the head) as terrorists. In fact, I am amazed that they can come up with any other way to describe these…terrorists.

Between CNN, NY Times, and Fox, only one ever used the word. Guess who were the only ones with the guts to tell the story like it is. It is understandable that Jill’s own paper, the Christian Science Monitor, would be as diplomatic as possible when making statements and requests towards the actual “captors.” To push the rhetoric in that case may jeopordize her life. However, the other papers, in reporting the incident are making a mistake by downplaying and mischaracterizing these terrorists as “captors.”

I understand that this is a subtle point. However, I think it demostrates clearly the sleep mode that a lot of our media have gone into. The way to downplay the threat of terrorism, and to treat is as fantasy, is to cease referring to acts of terrorism as terrorism. Call it something else. Something mundane and close to home like abduction, or kidnapping. But call it terrorism, and you concede that that guy on Pennsylvania Ave. may have a good reason to do outlandish things like tap the phones of people whose numbers appeared in Al-Qaeda laptops, or renew the PATRIOT Act.