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The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.

Words fail

28 comments on Words fail

Words fail

: I really don’t know how to continue to find ways to express outrage appropriate to the latest attrocities by the terrorists in Iraq. American civilians beheaded. Iraqi civilians bombed. Horrid murderers.

: Meanwhile, in Canada, Reuters makes CanWest remove its byline from stories because the papers up there — bless them — came up with a policy replacing Reuters’ quisling euphemisms with the word “terrorist.” Not to call them terrorists is not journalism; it’s lying; it’s the worst of hidden agendas. Good for you, Can-West. Curses on you, Reuters.

28 responses to “Words fail”

  1. chuck Avatar
    chuck

    Lord, Jeff. You’re going to vote for Bush before this is over. I’ve been watching and waiting. I’m not so sure about Michael (Totten), but I have hope for you ;-)
    Agreed on the misuse of language. A militant is not a terrorist, and to call the latter the former is blatantly political.

  2. debra Avatar
    debra

    so what were the Viet Cong? And the French Resistance and the Haganah and the Irgun and Ethan Allen’s Mountain Boys? Oh and the African National Congress and Gandhi and Mao Tse Tsung and the Communists and the FALN in Algeria. and the Tupamaros in Peru.
    You’re being sloppy and indiscriminate. Some of the above are terrorists, some are revolutionaries, some are insurgents, some are fighting colonial oppressors. They are not all terrorists. Just as not all the violence in Iraq is done by terrorists.

  3. Robert Brown Avatar
    Robert Brown

    A few more beheadings and I think Kerry will shift all the way over to calling for immediate withdrawal from Iraq. His foreign policy advisor already called Iraq worse that Vietnam.
    I hope he does so the voters have a clear choice about Iraq.

  4. Kat Avatar
    Kat

    Anyone who saws a guy’s head off and celebrates as he screams while dying, and then screech piss on allah, as they make a sickening video is worse than a terrorist–they are monsters in some sick cult. There is no word that is demeaning enough to describe this slime. A dungbeetle has more morals and more respect for life than this murdering scum….this death cult of perverts.

  5. Kat Avatar
    Kat

    Anyone who saws a guy’s head off and celebrates as he screams while dying, and then screech piss on allah, as they make a sickening video is worse than a terrorist–they are monsters in some sick cult. There is no word that is demeaning enough to describe this slime. A dungbeetle has more morals and more respect for life than this murdering scum….this death cult of perverts.

  6. pragmatist Avatar
    pragmatist

    debra:
    Interesting list. Can you provide some examples
    where, say, The Green Mountain Boys decapitate
    civilian captives? Or the Irgun doing so?
    And why didn’t you include the S.S. in your list?
    Is it that your just nostalgic for the way that
    they and their Spiritual Leader Hitler treated
    the Jews?
    What interesting demons you must wrestle.

  7. Alan Gutierrez Avatar
    Alan Gutierrez

    Reuters is arguing that the use of an emotive word like “terrorist” threatens the safety of their journalists. Considering the enormous danger these people face to send us information, is it fair to “curse” them for their euphemisms?
    It is pretty easy for us to assign these labels from the comfort of the homeland, but I can see how a Reuters correspondent might choose to mince words. Haven’t we seen enough reporters abducted by terrorists in Iraq to entertain the notion that Reuters avoids “terrorist” for reasons of safety?
    I agree with Can-West, but in the NYT article Can-West sympathizes with the Reuters’ motives.
    Is this really political? It it a matter of political correctness? Or is it a simple, practical matter of survival?
    Can-West can go ahead and make a moral judgment, based on the content of the story, to change “militant” to “terrorist”. Reuters gathers the information, Can-West adds its editorial changes. This division of labor provides a captured journalist with denyability. If journalists are targeted by the terrorists, there will be no reports that can be thus edited.
    These people are not talking heads, they are not the professionally opinionated, they are real journalists facing extreme danger. I have far, far more respect for the judgment of a war correspondent, and an organization that generates war correspondence, to simply dismiss their argument that impartiality is a matter of life and death.

  8. Eric Anondson Avatar
    Eric Anondson

    debra, you are being disgustingly relativistic.
    Calling armed anti-democracy forces bent on reinstituting a tyranny by assassinating, exploding, kidnapping, and beheading civilians anything short of “terrorists” is embarassing. The worship of this level of “impartiality” has turned Reuters into a virtual cheerleader of them.

  9. chuck Avatar
    chuck

    Debra,
    The Viet Cong were terrorists, among other things. A friend of mine went into a village where the VC had taken all the children, cut off their hands and feet, and laid them out in the village center. They thought the villagers were too friendly to the Americans. This traces back to Trotsky and Lenin, who promoted terror as a valid tool in the Russian Civil War. Communists aren’t progressives in any sense of the word.

  10. chuck Avatar
    chuck

    Debra,
    The Viet Cong were terrorists, among other things. A friend of mine went into a village where the VC had taken all the children, cut off their hands and feet, and laid them out in the village center. They thought the villagers were too friendly to the Americans. This traces back to Trotsky and Lenin, who promoted terror as a valid tool in the Russian Civil War. Communists aren’t progressives in any sense of the word.

  11. ann Avatar
    ann

    I have noticed that on many websites Reuters is called Al-Reuters. Just thought I’d mention it.

  12. Reid Avatar
    Reid

    “Anyone who saws a guy’s head off and celebrates as he screams while dying, and then screech piss on allah, as they make a sickening video is worse than a terrorist–they are monsters in some sick cult. “
    Yes, yes they are.
    Still, of all the responses so far, I am surprised I have not read any that singled out the shooting of small Russian children in the back. If that is not utter and complete depravity, let alone “terrorism”, I don’t know what is.

  13. Ozwitch Avatar
    Ozwitch

    On our television networks in Australia, only one referred to the Beslan terrorists as ‘terrorists.’ The multicultural channel called them ‘hostage-takers’ for the duration of the coverage. They have a large Islamic demographic they don’t want to offend. Others referred to them as insurgents/militants/Chechen rebels/guerillas. Nobody said murderers, which is what they were.
    I think Reuters is being a bit cute with the ‘danger to journalists’ defence. Sure, there is always danger to reporters, but it hasn’t stopped businesspeople/aid workers/military personnel from being kidnapped without calling anybody a terrorist at all. Just for doing their jobs out there.

  14. debra Avatar
    debra

    All of your responses are just as sloppy and indiscriminate as ever.
    The SS are oppressors. Terrorists are not in charge of power like the SS was, once Hitler ascended to power. The Brown Shirts, who helped Hitler seize power, could make the grade as terrorists. They set the Reichstag on fire and brutalized Jews, communists and homosexuals. Hitler, though, wiped them out just after he took power in something called the Night of the Long Knives. The SS are part of the machinery of state power.
    But I forgot the Partisaners who fought the Germans in the forests of Poland, like my Uncle Boris.
    The Irgun blew up civilians, women and children when they blew up the King David Hotel. Baader Meinhof in Germany were terrorists. Abu Nidal wasm a terrorist.
    Gandhi and Mao led resistence movements. The Viet Cong were first anti colonialists against the French control of their country and then they fought against us as guerillas to get us to leave their country. As did the FALN in Algeria. Oh and guess who invaded Iraq.
    Not every source of violence against us is a terrorist. Why does it matter what you call them, and not lump them all together? Because you can’t know the most effective way to fight them if you mislabel who they are and what their aims are. It’s just the same kind of sloppy incompetence that George Bush displayed when he identified Osama and Saddam as the same thing, as collaborators. You get the wrong solution to the problem; you make the problem worse.
    You resort to terror – which by the way is defined as actions against a civilian population, in order to cause ever present fear. That was the purpose of the Germans bombing London. If you have significant arms and weapons and you fight soldiers, not civilians, then you are enaging in insurgence or guerilla warfare.
    Some of the elements in Iraq are insurgents like the Sunni and the Baathists and some Shia. The kidnappers and assassins are smaller and less powerful, so they use these methods against civilians in order to instill fear and terror.
    You must deal with each one differently in order to have any hope of defeating them. Of course you keep forgetting we invaded their country and now we are occupying it. And unlike Germany and Japan they seem to actively hate us.
    And I don’t remember the Marshall plan in Germany making sure that aid money only went to American corporations.

  15. debra Avatar
    debra

    chuck
    don’t go there with the Viet Cong. Your horrible desription could be leveled agianst us in terms of My Lai. We were not terrorists when our soldiers acted horrendously in Vietnam and neither were the Viet Cong. That was not our policy and that was not their policy.
    Well and don’t forget the White Russians who fought the Bolsheviks with same ferocity that the Bolsheviks fought them.

  16. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    Debra, “Of course you keep forgetting we invaded their country and now we are occupying it. And unlike Germany and Japan they seem to actively hate us.”
    Of course that is the impression you get when the media follow politically correct and worse ideals when they decide to tell us lowly mortals what they would like us to believe the situation is- rather than give us straight facts and let us decide for ourselves.
    It is much less confusing to understand what is going on when terrorists and murderers are called what they are: Terrorists and murderers. The wonderful people who risk life and limb to fight these depraved people should not themselves be forced to greater suffering because of politically correct journalists personal fears and moral relativism.

  17. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    Yes, what’s in a name? Liberator or occupier ?
    Soldier or war criminal ? ( I’m thinking of the deliberate revenge killings of unarmed civilians – including a journalist- by a US helicopter crew last week, to give but one example) Decapitation! Remember the ‘Wedding Party’. Sullivan called it ‘bullshit’. Reynolds and The Belmont club chipped in as well but guess what ? It was true. Suddenly it was all quiet on the blogging front. Amongst the dead was a small child who’s head had been blown off by a shell. Monsters? They are all around us buddy. And while bloggers are concentating on Rathergate or Swift Boats or some other side-line, they will continue their grissly business – on both sides. A passing thought. I see Noraid is still a legal organization in the US. Now that you’ve experienced terrorism first hand how about an apology from all those politicians and good ‘ol oirish Americans’ who funded the IRA for years? There was some decapitation in Northern Ireland too you know?

  18. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    Mike, How difficult is it to tell the difference between those who have declared themselves as our enemy -( stating that they wish to destroy our society and terrify and murder us) – and our armed forces who seek to protect our society and end our enemies cruel objectives asap?
    It’s not and never has been difficult to tell the difference. Unless you don’t want to.

  19. Michael Avatar
    Michael

    Aside: Mike tries to reveal some of the complexities of an issue. Joe brings it back to simple binary oppositions. Thus is the blogosphere, and Joe will win out.

  20. kh Avatar
    kh

    on that note, the only thing i’ve ever liked about fox news has been the fact that they call suicide bombers; “homocide bombers”. that’s a1 in my books.
    cheers.
    What Wouldn’t Jesus Do?

  21. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    Michael, I would describe it slightly differently: I see Mikes revelation not as the “complexities of an issue”, but as the complexities of many issues lumped together in a fog that confuses THE issue.
    The winning that interests me is winning against the terrorists (our self appointed enemy). If the terrorists win there will be no blogosphere discussions between different viewpoints.
    Yes I think it is helpful to remind ourselves of the binary situation: Freedom or Tyranny.., Sphere-of-fear or Blogosphere.
    The more that anyone, like those journalists of Reuters, try to confuse the issue, the more reason there is to keep repeating the simple binary facts to help us keep our eye on the ball clear through their fog of confusion.

  22. Susan Avatar
    Susan

    I wonder what it must be like, to be a journalist these days. Such a lack of curiosity and depth; so moved by the moment. Broad brushstroke here, but they seem like juveniles, chasing fads and fashions, and not adults, examining anything for truth. They seem, in short, like their public: we’re a juvenile society.
    When journalists & their outlets refer to terrorists as “insurgents” or something like “revolutionaries” (though I don’t hear that term used, per se, but it is certainly implied), it seems the obvious question would be, then what society do they wish to create in Iraq and elsewhere, that they are so willing to kill and die for? What alternative to a democratic society do they propose? But, just as Arafat has never proposed (that I know of) a legitimate form of government or any form of social structure for the Palestinians, yet his “leadership” is constantly implied to be that of a statesman–even a head of state–so the terrorists have never offered the first hint of what it is they want to produce through their terror, and even beyond their terror, if it were to succeed in driving the West away. That lack of curiosity among journalists, in Iraq and at their editorial desks, is so telling, but hardly, alas, gets told.
    Thank you for asking that question. Indeed, where is their principle of anything governmental or societal? What, indeed, are they after? What is their movement about, besides terror? What would they accomplish after we were gone? Indeed, what could possibly please terrorists, murderers, and thugs? Probably nothing but being terrorists, murderers, and thugs.
    Yet no one examines that.

  23. Ric Locke Avatar
    Ric Locke

    Don’t bother cursing al-Reuters; as well to whip a puppy for piddling on the rug.
    Read Nelson Ascher
    Re-definitions. (via Michael Totten)
    Regards,
    Ric Locke

  24. Robert McClelland Avatar
    Robert McClelland

    So I take it then, Jeff, that you have no objection to me editing your work and passing it off as coming straight from you?

  25. Robert McClelland Avatar
    Robert McClelland

    By the way, Jeff, there’s an interesting backstory developing on this CanWest/Reuters thing you’d probably be interested in.
    CanWest controls a good portion of the Canadian conservative media and they, like all conservative media, have been engaged in taking shots at the liberal media–specifically the CBC. It was the CBC that broke this story about CanWest altering Reuters newswire copy and told Reuters about it.
    Scuttlebutt has it that CBC has been given the greenlight to begin launching couterattacks against the conservative media in Canada, specifically CanWest. So what we could be seeing is the beginning of an all out media war, pitting the left leaning outlets against the right leaning outlets, in Canada.

  26. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    Don’t know about Ethan Allen, but Americans at King’s Mountain in October 1780 massacred surrendering Loyalists:
    “With his death, the terrified Tories tried to surrender. But the vengeful rebels would not let them. A loyalist who was riding toward them with a white flag was shot down. A second, making the same effort, was killed. The rebel blood was up, their vengeance fed by the memory of the Waxhaws. “Buford! Buford!” they shouted. “Tarleton’s quarter! Tarleton’s quarter!” They pursued their frightened victims as they ran to a hollow place on the hilltop and cowered there in horror. One by one, the frontiersmen cut them down, sometimes singling out neighbors by name before they fired. Many of the Patriots thirsted to revenge themselves on the deaths of relatives and friends who were murdered by the Tories. Their eyes glittered maniacally as they loaded and fired…loaded and fired…At last Major Evan Shelby called on the Loyalists to throw down their arms. They did, but the rebel rifles still blazed.
    Colonel William Campbell rode among his bloodthirsty Virginians shouting: “For God’s sake, quit! It’s murder to shoot anymore!” Captain Abraham de Peyster, who took command of the Loyalists after Ferguson died, rode up to Campbell pleading with him to stop the slaughter. At last Campbell ordered the Tory officers to detach themselves from their men and told the men to sit down and take off their hats. They did so, but sporadic shots were still fired until they finally ceased. Even so, the enraged Patriots gathered four deep around their crouching prisoners, glaring at them, hurling insults, calling out the names of those who were known for their atrocities. With restoration of order, the captives’ arms were collected and confiscated, and they were confined under guard. Ferguson’s personal effects were divided among the officers as souvenirs, and his body was wrapped in oxhide and buried.”
    http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Estates/3071/enlisted/kingsmtn.html
    There’s also the Fort Pillow massacre/battle of April 12, 1864 (ironically, 3 years after Ft. Sumter was fired upon).
    So, yes, even in American history, we have perpetrated atrocities.

  27. tommy Avatar
    tommy

    Joe: do you really and truly believe that the mighty USA can be felled by Zarqawi and his knife?
    It seems to me that Debra’s ultimate point is right: if we don’t make intelligent distinctions as to what the greatest dangers are to our republic only then do we risk losing it.
    So far, al-Qaeda has masterfully drawn us into blunder after blunder. We need to stop being our own worst enemy and IMHO part of this is dropping the righteous, preening, narcissistic victimology so lustily embraced by the current administration and its enablers. It obviously leads to policies for which there can be no rational and detached measurement of effectiveness – just wooly-minded platitudes about how evil the other side is and how great we are (veering into “chosen people” status and hubris that history shows punishing subsequents for).

  28. pragmatist Avatar
    pragmatist

    debra suggested:
    “The Irgun blew up civilians, women and
    children when they blew up the King David
    Hotel.”
    It would be interesting for you to read up
    on that incident. Why, for example, did the
    British – sticklers for law – not prosecute
    the Irgun?
    Because it was the British who were commiting
    the WAR CRIME by placing a legitimate military
    target – their War HQ – in a civilian area.
    And you also are appalling unfamilar with the
    Nazi use of “Terror Weapons” against those
    same British during World War II.
    I’d call you an “ignorant slut” but I’m not
    sure you have “round heels”. You certainly
    an IGNORANT poster. Your grasp of history
    is feeble. I’d suggest you request a full
    refund on the “education” you not doubt
    purchased from some exceptionally third
    rate school. Northwestern U. perhaps?