Inside the mind of newsweek on terrorism
By Glenn Greenwald
(source: Salon Media Group.com)
On so many levels, this is one of the most stunningly revealing things I’ve read in quite some time. As I documented last week, the media’s reluctance to describe IRS attacker Joe Stack as a "terrorist" reveals that this term has little to do with the act itself and everything to do with the demographic attributes of the actor: namely, in the American political lexicon, "Terrorists" are Muslims who dislike the U.S., while Americans — especially ones who are white and non-Muslim — cannot, by definition, qualify. Anyone who has doubts about that or who thought my argument was hyperbole should click on that link, which will direct you to an internal discussion among Newsweek editors and writers over their reluctance to use the term "Terrorist" to describe Stack and who they believe qualifies instead.
Aside from the suffocating denseness of their discussion — most of them ramble on about who is and is not a "Terrorist" for three straight days without even attempting to define what that term means — just look at how blatantly tribalistic and propagnadistic they are about its usage. Many of them all but say outright that it can apply only to Muslims but never non-Muslim Americans. The whole thing has to be read to be believed — and what’s most amazing is that they published it because they obviously though it was some sort of probing, intelligent discussion which would enlighten the public — but let’s just examine a few of the contributions.
