Political linguistics - the key to end terrorism

Submitted by Ianus (Poland), Mar 11, 2009 at 17:57

Hi , Chet Limbright !

You wrote a very nice comment. I enjoyed reading it. You observed :

> You should look at Fareed Zakaria article 'The Only Thing We Have to fear'…. He is claiming that the acts of terrorism are declining, citing some innocuous study from Canada's Simon Fraser University part of liberal la, la, land.<

Indeed ! If Zakaria examines the VOA reports, he will have to optimisticly conclude that terrorism is coming to an end. Just look at the VOA guidelines by J. Janin :

>Islamic terrorists: DO NOT USE. Instead use simply: terrorist

>Terrorism/ terrorist: AVOID OVERUSE.

So first you never find any Islamic terrorism in the VOA reports. Then the term itself becomes scarce which will be taken by 'scholars' like Zakaria as the best proof terrorism is no longer a problem. If it were, the VOA and similar media would tell us, wouldn't they ? They keep teaching us they are after all " consistently reliable and authoritative source of news (...) accurate, objective, and comprehensive", don't they? Perhaps one day the VOA will take Zakaria's report to prove the same point.

All of it reminds me a little a story about a group of liars who gave mutually testimonials of veracity.

Best regards,

Ianus

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