Those "Militants", Yet Again

Over the years I have fulminated against the media choice of terms, preferring "militant" over "terrorist".

And thanks to a CAMERA alert, I caught this about a Washinton Post story:

Uses the term “militant” or “militants” 10 times, the words “terrorist” or “terrorists” not once, even though it refers directly to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah, groups designated by the United States, Israel and other countries as terrorist. It substitutes “militant” while describing acts of terrorism – threatening or using violence against non-combatants to influence larger audiences and advance political, theological, economic or other goals – committed by the Palestinian and Lebanese groups. Yet in the same edition of The Post, a front page article headlined “Al-Qaeda branch in Iraq poses new threat; Terror group, crippled by U.S., is tied to foiled Jordan plot, Syria war,” uses “terror” and “terrorist” 14 times, “militant” and “militants” not at all. The double-standard could not be clearer: Arabs who threaten other, non-combatant Arabs, including those aligned with the United States, are terrorists. Palestinian Arabs and others who likewise threaten Israel and its citizens are sanitized as “militants.”

Be alert to what you read.

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