Daily Alert Archives

NPR's Terror Problem: When is a Terrorist a Terrorist?

(National Review) Alex Safian - Suicide bombers strike civilian targets in Saudi Arabia and Morocco, and National Public Radio quite reasonably labels the attacks "terror" and the attackers "terrorists," but when - at almost the same time - Palestinian suicide bombers launch five attacks against Israelis, NPR reporters, and hosts, as they have in the past, virtually banish the word "terror" from their vocabulary. Is this because NPR believes that Israelis, even women and children on a bus, are not "innocents," or perhaps that, by definition, those who attack Israelis cannot be terrorists? According to NPR's online style guide for reporters, the word terrorism "connotes" that the victims are "innocents." NPR's definition then explicitly questions whether Palestinian attacks against Israelis should be termed "terrorism."
2003-06-12 00:00:00
Full Article