Doing It Again: ‘Our’ terrorists are ‘your’ Islamists; Semi-Secret Identities at The Washington Post
Remember phonograph records, and how playing needles stuck in scratches–sometimes rendering the recording unlistenable? If so, you’ll understand the “stuck-in-the-groove” problem typified by two examples from the September 9 print edition of The Washington Post.
“In ancient Christian town, war makes sudden appearance at convent; Nuns unharmed by extremists fighters, mother superior says” appeared on page A-9. It mentioned the Syrian rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra and noted that al-Nusra “is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government because of its declared affiliation with al-Qaeda.” Correspondent Liz Sly filed The Post’s report.
In contrast, the front page article, “Gaza lifeline is in peril as Egypt aims at Hamas,” referred to “the Islamist movement Hamas” and reminded readers that “the group is an offshoot of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood ….” But the otherwise informative dispatch, which reported that Israel “considers [Hamas] a terrorist organization,” did not tell readers that the U.S. government does as well–not to mention Canada and other countries.
Post Jerusalem Bureau Chief William Booth, and Cairo correspondent Abigail Hauslohner paraphrased an Egyptian source as noting that “ ‘terrorist’ groups were clustered” in the Sinai desert near Egypt’s border with Israel. They also referred to “a Sinai-based militant group” that claimed responsibility for trying to assassinate Egypt’s interior minister and said “militants have launched deadly attacks on military and police positions almost daily in the north.”
If it’s worth The Post telling readers that the United States has designated Jabhat al-Nusra a terrorist group, why is it not important to remind them of the same regarding Hamas (and, in Israel-Lebanon stories, Hezbollah)? Habits, especially bad–or uninformative ones–are made to be broken.
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