THE MEDIA IS RESPONSIBLE FOR TERRORIST SUCCESS!!!
The media should never report, “ISIS claims responsibility for the attack.” Nothing about these attacks is responsible. They are cowardly, attacks on non-combatants. The concept of responsibility exists in a different dimension than terrorism.
The media shouldn’t say, “ISIS claims responsibility for the attack.” Instead, the media should say, “ISIS admits guilt for the attack.”
The use of the term “guilt” suggests that it was a crime, which it was. “Admitting guilt” is what criminals do. “Claiming responsibility” is a nice sanitized term that implies reasoned action. We all want to be responsible, right? Terrorist are responsible to nothing but their ideology. They are guilty of terrorizing us. The media should tell it like it is.
THE MEDIA ENCOURAGES TERRORISTS BY TAKING THEIR WORDS WITHOUT QUESTION
The media plays into the hands of the terrorists by allowing itself to be easily duped by claims of involvement in attacks. All it takes is one spokesperson to say “We did it” for the reporters to be running to their smartphones to lodge the story. Where’s the proof? The media should demand to see actual evidence of everything the terrorists say.
Terrorists are willing to kill scores of people with a truck. They’re not going to be afraid to lie. Make them prove their claims.
Proof. Evidence. Phone logs. Pictures. Video. Before you believe a terrorist’s words, make them prove it. There’s a two source rule for reporting. The media should insist on two sources and original documentation.
THE MEDIA ENCOURAGES TERRORISTS BY PUBLICIZING THEIR IMAGES OF “TERRORIST PORN”
Andy Warhol famously said, “In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” ISIS wants round-the-clock publicity. Its intent is to terrorize society twice for each attack.
The media must realize that its coverage of an attack terrorizes society a second time.
Thus, every newscast about a terrorist atrocity furthers the terrorist’s clause. Endless repetition enhances the image they want to portray to the world.
If ISIS puts out a video, they want us to see it. So don’t show it. Its as simple as that. And don’t repeat their names, either. Terrorists rely on Western media to spread their message, create fear and recruit followers. the Western media should deny them an effective media platform. I acknowledge using the truck driver’s photo as the featured image for this article. I was looking for an image that conveyed the concept of terrorism in a non-exploitative way, and that is the image I chose.
The media should look at what the terrorists want regarding publicity, and then do the opposite.
There is an opposing school of thought that believes if we don’t see exactly what they are doing, we won’t feel strongly enough to be wiling to fight them. Personally I have enough faith in the power of words to be able to imagine horrific scenes without seeing a head oddly misplaced on a body. You can get through life and be anti-terrorist without viewing that image, which can never be unseen.
Granted, people want to know what happened, but is our society enhanced by endless repetition, and the showing of images of terrorist porn; of bodies that are not intact? This writer thinks not. Adults can find it on the internet if they want. The media should not make it easy for them, just for the sake of viewers, clicks or page views. Writer and former British Member of Parliament Louise Mensch wrote recently of reports of torture at the Bataclan nightclub in France. Nobody needed pictures to get the idea.
THE MEDIA SHOULD AVOID SENSATIONALIST COVERAGE OF TERRORIST ATTACKS
Studies have shown that sensationalist media coverage of terrorist acts results in more such acts being committed.
Avoiding sensationalist coverage includes keeping terrorism, and the threat of terrorism, in perspective.
To hear politicians and pundits, terrorists have every one of us in their sights, and they are living next door. In truth, the odds are infinitesimal that any of us will ever face a terrorist attack. For example, eighty four people were killed in Nice, France last week. Meanwhile, 736 Americans were killed in auto accidents over the same period. Terrorism is not new to the world. There were terrorist bombings in New York in 1919. But we survived then, and we’ll survive now.
It is not clear at this time whether the man who killed 84 people in a truck was motivated by either politics or religion, but the media has labeled the event terrorism and accepted ISIS’ statement that it praised the attack as proof that it was guilty of the attack. Reporter Jim Naureckas of FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting), a media watchdog, makes these points in an excellent analysis. His thesis is that the claim of terrorism was based on the driver’s ethnicity and not evidence.
The media narrative thus adopts the destructive claims of the Donald Trumps and the Newt Gingriches of the world who blame Radical Islam for Terrorism for all that ails the world. They fail to acknowledge that the vast, vast majority of victims are Muslims, themselves. Its not about religion. Its about power.
The media should never report, “ISIS claims responsibility for the attack.” Nothing about these attacks is responsible. They are cowardly, attacks on non-combatants. The concept of responsibility exists in a different dimension than terrorism.
The media shouldn’t say, “ISIS claims responsibility for the attack.” Instead, the media should say, “ISIS admits guilt for the attack.”
The use of the term “guilt” suggests that it was a crime, which it was. “Admitting guilt” is what criminals do. “Claiming responsibility” is a nice sanitized term that implies reasoned action. We all want to be responsible, right? Terrorist are responsible to nothing but their ideology. They are guilty of terrorizing us. The media should tell it like it is.
THE MEDIA ENCOURAGES TERRORISTS BY TAKING THEIR WORDS WITHOUT QUESTION
The media plays into the hands of the terrorists by allowing itself to be easily duped by claims of involvement in attacks. All it takes is one spokesperson to say “We did it” for the reporters to be running to their smartphones to lodge the story. Where’s the proof? The media should demand to see actual evidence of everything the terrorists say.
Terrorists are willing to kill scores of people with a truck. They’re not going to be afraid to lie. Make them prove their claims.
Proof. Evidence. Phone logs. Pictures. Video. Before you believe a terrorist’s words, make them prove it. There’s a two source rule for reporting. The media should insist on two sources and original documentation.
THE MEDIA ENCOURAGES TERRORISTS BY PUBLICIZING THEIR IMAGES OF “TERRORIST PORN”
Andy Warhol famously said, “In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” ISIS wants round-the-clock publicity. Its intent is to terrorize society twice for each attack.
The media must realize that its coverage of an attack terrorizes society a second time.
Thus, every newscast about a terrorist atrocity furthers the terrorist’s clause. Endless repetition enhances the image they want to portray to the world.
If ISIS puts out a video, they want us to see it. So don’t show it. Its as simple as that. And don’t repeat their names, either. Terrorists rely on Western media to spread their message, create fear and recruit followers. the Western media should deny them an effective media platform. I acknowledge using the truck driver’s photo as the featured image for this article. I was looking for an image that conveyed the concept of terrorism in a non-exploitative way, and that is the image I chose.
The media should look at what the terrorists want regarding publicity, and then do the opposite.
There is an opposing school of thought that believes if we don’t see exactly what they are doing, we won’t feel strongly enough to be wiling to fight them. Personally I have enough faith in the power of words to be able to imagine horrific scenes without seeing a head oddly misplaced on a body. You can get through life and be anti-terrorist without viewing that image, which can never be unseen.
Granted, people want to know what happened, but is our society enhanced by endless repetition, and the showing of images of terrorist porn; of bodies that are not intact? This writer thinks not. Adults can find it on the internet if they want. The media should not make it easy for them, just for the sake of viewers, clicks or page views. Writer and former British Member of Parliament Louise Mensch wrote recently of reports of torture at the Bataclan nightclub in France. Nobody needed pictures to get the idea.
THE MEDIA SHOULD AVOID SENSATIONALIST COVERAGE OF TERRORIST ATTACKS
Studies have shown that sensationalist media coverage of terrorist acts results in more such acts being committed.
Avoiding sensationalist coverage includes keeping terrorism, and the threat of terrorism, in perspective.
To hear politicians and pundits, terrorists have every one of us in their sights, and they are living next door. In truth, the odds are infinitesimal that any of us will ever face a terrorist attack. For example, eighty four people were killed in Nice, France last week. Meanwhile, 736 Americans were killed in auto accidents over the same period. Terrorism is not new to the world. There were terrorist bombings in New York in 1919. But we survived then, and we’ll survive now.
It is not clear at this time whether the man who killed 84 people in a truck was motivated by either politics or religion, but the media has labeled the event terrorism and accepted ISIS’ statement that it praised the attack as proof that it was guilty of the attack. Reporter Jim Naureckas of FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting), a media watchdog, makes these points in an excellent analysis. His thesis is that the claim of terrorism was based on the driver’s ethnicity and not evidence.
The media narrative thus adopts the destructive claims of the Donald Trumps and the Newt Gingriches of the world who blame Radical Islam for Terrorism for all that ails the world. They fail to acknowledge that the vast, vast majority of victims are Muslims, themselves. Its not about religion. Its about power.
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