The Smoking Socks Award - who's a 'terrorist'?

I haven't trawled the letters pages of our media for some time now but this morning's Mail & Guardian sports a pearler, which IAS readers will know is exactly the sentiment shared by their editorial staff.

Who’s a ‘terrorist’? One feels for the people of India. Still, one can’t help but feel that the word “terrorist” Is far too easily employed in the media. Other more neutral words would be more prudently used in these kinds of situations. In last week’s editorial you wrote eloquently about being circumspect regarding the words politicians use. The subtext of the word “terrorism” when the targets are from the West is that the local people are inherently less valuable than Americans, Britons, Israelis and Australians. The media uses “militants” when local people are killed but when the victims are Westerners the actions are labelled “terrorism”. — Craig

Does anyone believe Craig really does "feel" for the people of India? Hands up. No? That's what I thought. I find it incredibly annoying when lefties invert this situation, complaining about reality even though it's spun in a way that they support. The overwhelming policy in local and international media outlets has been to use the word 'militants' when describing attacks against Americans, Israelis et al. I have seen the word 'terrorism', however, used with increasing frequency to describe the attacks in India. If anything, the exact reverse of what Craig whinges about applies. 

Do you think Craig ever reads the newspapers? Hands up. No? That's what I thought.

Comments

[Lawrence]

I think Craig probably does read Fisk and Pilger though, maybe Chomsky. Or at least he plans to, or pretends to, so as to impress his pseudo-intellectual friends who share his mentality, and read the M&G.

Incidentally Osama Bin Laden has praised both Fisk as a trusted "neutral" journalist and 'ol Chomsky in his broadsides, and for that matter fellow radical Leftist author William Blum (Maybe Pilger feels smarted at being left out, I don't know - he is praised by numerous neo-Nazis groups on the net, and Muslim extremists too, so maybe that takes the sting off being left off of Osama's recommended reading). So from this we can conclude that either Osama is a bleeding heart liberal or that Fiskies and Chomskybots are .....(fill in the blank)

[Gary]

Bizarre...It is only when Israelis are NOT the victims that the word terrorist is used, when Israelis are targeted it is ALWAYS 'millitant' or 'activist'.

But leftist maniacs like Craig invert the truth in their own special Marxist-Satanist way.

[Steve]

Yeah, maniacs come in with guns, bombs and grenades and kill innocent near random people (not random because they targetted Jews, brits and Americans) and this moron wants us to be more circumspect and to use more "neutral" words.

We should be more careful not to cast judgement when ghouls deliberately kill innocents.

Idiot.