Memo to CBC staff;
‘Terrorist’ and ‘terrorism’: Exercise extreme caution before using either word.
More.
Related: “ACLU defends Nazi’s right to burn down ACLU headquarters.”
Avoid labelling any specific bombing or other assault as a “terrorist act” unless it’s attributed (in a TV or Radio clip, or in a direct quote on the Web). For instance, we should refer to the deadly blast at that nightclub in Bali in October 2002 as an “attack,” not as a “terrorist attack.” The same applies to the Madrid train attacks in March 2004, the London bombings in July 2005 and the attacks against the United States in 2001, which the CBC prefers to call “the Sept. 11 attacks” or some similar expression. (The BBC, Reuters and many others follow similar policies.)Terrorism generally implies attacks against unarmed civilians for political, religious or some other ideological reason. But it’s a highly controversial term that can leave journalists taking sides in a conflict.
By restricting ourselves to neutral language, we aren’t faced with the problem of calling one incident a “terrorist act” (e.g., the destruction of the World Trade Center) while classifying another as, say, a mere “bombing” (e.g., the destruction of a crowded shopping mall in the Middle East).
Use specific descriptions. Instead of reaching for a label (“terrorist” or “terrorism”) when news breaks, try describing what happened.
For example, “A suicide bomber blew up a bus full of unarmed civilians early Monday, killing at least two dozen people.” The details of these tragedies give our audience the information they need to form their own conclusions about what type of attack it was.
Rather than calling assailants “terrorists,” we can refer to them as bombers, hijackers, gunmen (if we’re sure no women were in the group), militants, extremists, attackers or some other appropriate noun.
It’s not practical to draft a list of all contexts in which the words “terrorist” and “terrorism” are appropriate in news stories. For instance, we might write that Canada and other countries have passed “anti-terrorism” legislation, or that intelligence agencies have lists of groups that they consider “terrorist” organizations, or that the U.S. government has issued another warning about an increased risk of “terrorist attacks” in the next few weeks, or that certain people have been charged with acts of “terrorism.” Use common sense.
The guiding principle should be that we don’t judge specific acts as “terrorism” or people as “terrorists.” Such labels must be attributed.
As CBC News editor-in-chief Tony Burman has pointed out: “Our preference is to describe the act or individual, and let the viewer or listener or political representatives make their own judgment.”
(Memo courtesy CBC watch)
That’s just the Mary Jane talkin, maryjane.
From the Woodstock school of thought surely.
“If we smoke enough dope, we can change the world,… man!”
“No Rain ,No Rain, No Rain!!!”
Take your head out of your bong!
Also saw the Mark Kelley piece last night, & while his Canadian everyman schtick can be a little precious at times, I thought it was one of the better pieces I’ve seen on the cbc in some time.
Bob, I have trouble with your retaliation argument. I’m sure the terrorists in training believe it, but that doesn’t mean we should. Otherwise, we are consigning ourselves to a never-ending war of retaliation, counter-retaliation. These Islamists are on nobody’s side but their own. They seek to enslave the entire world in their medieval mould and have done more to cause misery for their own people than anyone else. We all, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, atheists etc, have a common enemy, and it is them. We can’t move forward to look at issues such as root causes, poverty and corruption unless we take these nutbars out. In the end they will destroy us all if we let them. Using equivaliencies gets us nowhere.
If someone can pull up a link to the Kelly piece, I’d appreciate it. I agree – it was well done, his “disbelief” at the “racist” Dutch politician notwithstanding.
(When is someone going to point out to media that Islam is a religious/political belief system, not a race?)
Go Holland Go!
maryjane: May I recommend a good book:
The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression.
It was written c. 1993 by 6 EUROPEAN intellectuals, some of whom HAD been enthusiastic communist sympathizers. Needless to say it took a great deal of intellectual courage for them to allow themselves to see the reality.
It is a stupdendous tour de force, a magnum opus. It would change your perspective I’m sure.
Holland has long felt an obligation to Canada for the help recieved in WW2. Canda is now obliged to Holland for their having shown us that, with intestinal fortitude, we can address the problems associated with Islam. Down with the Islamic “race.”
Terry Gain and Free
You guys keep following the yellow brick road and I will hang around to see your reactions when you arrive in OZ.
What you guys think of as Left is at best centrist. I have seen far more Right in all media than any true Left. That is the real problem I think. You guys on the Right don’t know what Left really looks like. If you did you would see immediately the true difference between Left and Right. There is certainly no Left in America to speak of. There is a small part of the Democratic Party that may qualify but they don’t affect policy.
All American politics is basically Right or Centre-Right. That is why you don’t really know anything about Left. All you have are ancient very crude and always wrong interpretations from neanderthal brains like they have at Fox.
Me No…. How do you know what my perspective is? If the criticism of the CBC is that they pussyfoot around using the word terrorist, and they should apply it where the shoe fits, then fine, use it. But the shoe also fits Reagan/Bush and the war criminals in the G W Bush administration.
But the shoe also fits Reagan/Bush and the war criminals in the G W Bush administration.
Hear that? I think it’s the hyperbole police coming to whisk someone away!
Steve D., of “the Star isn’t very left” fame says…..
“You guys on the Right don’t know what Left really looks like. If you did you would see immediately the true difference between Left and Right. There is certainly no Left in America to speak of.”
It was just before this post that Steve D. removed the safety regulator off of his self-delusion machine.
Watch out everybody!!!
I thought Mark Kelly’s piece — including the compassionate, understanding tone of his interview with a (white) woman who was more or less trapped in her apartment due to abuse of immigrants who called her, ah, certain names — was alright. At least it went places and examined issues with a breadth you wouldn’t normally expect from CBC.
What’s annoying is when he tries to avoid being seen as politically incorrect by doing his half-disengenuous “wink wink, this is what a sterotypical Canadian would say” with a straight face. The Dutch politician he interviewed seem to see through the technique, but was willing to play along by pretending to be credulous; in the case of the grande dame British MP his approach seemed to just annoy her.
It would be nice if he’d drop this journalistic equivalent of “finger quotes” performed in front of an exaggerated wink — it’s a little bit too Phil Donahue — but hey, if it helps slip his pieces past his producers, it’ll do.
Once again, Simpsons did it first:
Kent Brockman: “And I, for one, welcome our new ant overlords. I’d like to remind them that, as a trusted media personality, I would be useful for recruiting people to work in their underground sugar caves.”
Perhaps it is better that none of the CBC’s World War II correspondants are still with us. If they were alive to see the lack of courage inherent in today’s media, they would surely die from a sudden and violent expulsion of gastrointestinal contents caused by mentally absorbing such drivel.
Maryjane:
Actually I have no problem calling the Contras or anyone terrorists, if they indeed engaged in that type of behaviour. I am a right-winger, yet I have no problem admitting that there are and were right- as well as left-wing, Jewish and Islamic terrorists, socialist and fascist ones.
I was very surprised to see the CBC actually air such rubbish !
The title alone sums up the conclusion which Mr. Kelly wants us to reach: Moslem Canadians are enemies within !
Amazing the speed with which Canadian media can turn downright racist and ugly. (see http://www.robert-fisk.com/)
And how fast people like Mr. Kelly are eager to write off multiculturalism in Canada!
Is Europe really a place we want to look for inspiration on tolerance and multiculturalism.
Hhhmmmmm isn’t that where concentration camps were invented!
This piece of media has obviously been made long before the recent arrests and was just waiting for the right occasion.