Earl Croasmun -> Ed Hulett wrote:

 RC>>>> What do you think it was that emboldens terrorists?

 BA>>> In two words:  press coverage.  IMO all such coverage should
 ->> cease.  But it
 BA>>> won't, because 'if it bleeds, it leads.'

 ->> That is the most absurd claim yet. 3000+ innocent people died on
 ->> 09-11-2001 because the perps wanted to see their names in the
 ->> paper?!?!?!

 ->> Suicide bombers blow up innocent people in Israel because the bombers
 ->> want to see their faces on the nightly news?!?!?!?!

 ->> Good God! You can read literally anything here in FIDO!

 EC> Bob A. is correct in a pure sense of what "terrorism" is all about.
 EC> Terrorists go for maximum exposure and visibility.  They also kill in
 EC> the process, but the visibility of the killing is more important than
 EC> the number killed.

 EC> There is a reason that the World Trade Center was targeted - twice - and
 EC> the White House and the Pentagon.  They are visible symbols.  The goal
 EC> was not to kill the maximum number of people.

 EC> Suicide bombers are a mixed group.  Some are primarily terrorists.  Some
 EC> are just killers.  Kamikaze attacks were attempts to kill people and
 EC> sink ships, not to terrorize the public. But when a suicide bomber goes
 EC> into a restaurant in Israel at lunchtime and blows up himself and five
 EC> bystanders, the goal was not just to kill five people but to scare the
 EC> whole Israeli population into fearing attack any time and any place.

That's true.

 EC> To some degree he is right about publicity.  The anthrax attacks got far
 EC> more publicity than they deserved, and increased the terror impact while
 EC> inspiring copycats and hoaxers.  But when 200 people get killed in Bali
 EC> or when sarin gas is released in Japanese subways it is hard NOT to
 EC> publicize the stories.

For years now the MSM has been sliding back into yellow journalism. The
spirit of William Randolph Hearst lives on.

-- 
L'Chaim,
Mimi

fcpnmimi(at)cox.net



So many books...so little time

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