UAE calls Jerusalem attack what media won’t: terror
After Palestinians opened fire on vehicles and pedestrians Monday, slaughtering people, Israel wasn’t alone in calling on the world to recognize terrorism for what it is.
The United Arab Emirates did the same, condemning “in the strongest terms the terrorist shooting.” The UAE also expressed “sincere condolences and sympathy to the families of the victims, and to the State of Israel and its people, as well as its wishes for a speedy recovery for all the injured.”
Meanwhile, what entity did not call it terrorism? The mainstream media. This is far more significant than it may sound at first. It speaks to a deeply ingrained bias — one I saw throughout my years at NPR and CNN, and is more prevalent than ever today.
These big news agencies and others claim to have a position on this issue. They say their “rule” is to attribute claims of terrorism to government officials, rather than declaring incidents to be terror in their own language. But there is only one place in which they enforce this rule. Guess which.
The most powerful way to examine this is through headlines. Far more people see headlines than read, watch, or listen to stories. And headlines are fodder for social media, where millions of people are radicalized.
So here are just a few headlines from big media organizations over the past year, in which they had no problem declaring attacks to be terror, and perpetrators to be terrorists:
- “6 years after kidnapping, she escaped terrorists” – the New York Times, discussing Nigeria
- “At the trial of the Paris terrorists: coming to terms with a city’s pain” – the Washington Post
- “Britain marks 20th anniversary of deadly 7/7 terror attack in London”- UPI
- “Postponed Sugar Bowl played with enhanced security about 36 hours after terror attack in New Orleans” – the AP
All of these were attacks by Islamist terrorists. All of these news agencies claim they don’t do this. This is the norm for today’s media.
To dismantle the bigotry, we need to understand why it happens. While some news executives try desperately to justify the separate standards for the tiny Jewish state, others admit off the record why they really do this: they want to appeal to radicalized people, not just in the United States but all over the world. And they want access to markets in some of the most antisemitic nations.
The only way to change this is to demand it. Cancel subscriptions to failed legacy media. You can quite possibly still access the same news for free without paywalls, legally. And tell the news agencies how you feel. Here’s how you can email them.