CJR on Eric Rudolph: media does not use "T-word"

[Cocoa]

via cursor.org http://www.cursor.org/

http://www.cjrdaily.org/archives/001443.asp

<snip>

In the case of recently captured bomber Eric Rudolph, the four bombs he detonated outside a gay bar, two women's clinics and at the Atlanta Olympic Games in the mid-to-late 1990s easily fall within these criteria. His goal was political and intended to influence an audience (he wanted Roe v. Wade overturned, and saw the Atlanta Games as the first step toward a "New World Order"), and the attacks were most definitely perpetrated against noncombatants by a non-state entity. The situation seems at least as clear-cut as many acts regularly labeled terrorism in the media.

In the coverage of his guilty plea to the bombing charges, however, many reporters have stopped short of labeling him a terrorist. The New York Times online never uses the word, in keeping with a story filed on Friday, in which the Times referred to Rudolph simply as a "anti-abortion crusader and former soldier."

Similarly, an AP story which led most of the early coverage this morning shies away from the "T" word, although Rudolph planned and executed a series of targeted bombings in which two people died and over 120 were wounded. For its part, a Reuters wire story also failed to call Rudolph anything other than a survivalist and a fugitive.

The AP doesn't always display this sort of reticence in labeling someone a terrorist. Today, another of their stories described three "terrorists" who were indicted on charges in Britain after plotting to attack the New York Stock Exchange and other financial institutions on the East Coast. The New York Times was also quick to label the three terrorists in their treatment of the story.

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[indepat]

1. Would it be RWers who commit acts of terrorism are not terrorists:

that such labeling is reserved to those of other political persuasions?

[alarcojon]

4. He's also not brown,

doesn't wear a turban, and isn't a Muslim.

[iamjoy]

5. Spot On, indepat

they deny there is any such thing as a Conservative Terrorist.

[rock]

2. He is a Christian terrorist

As other Duers have pointed out.

[doubleplusgood]

3. yeah, kill people & you're an anti-abortion "activist"

...while environmental "activists" who, at worst, damage property are called "eco-terrorists".