Terrorist vs. militant: The complicated language of reporting atrocities in Israel-Hamas war
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火曜日, 10月 17, 2023
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So why, even after the mass killings and kidnappings in Israel on Oct. 7, do major news organizations resist multiplying calls to describe Hamas as a terrorist organization?
Key Points:
- So why, even after the mass killings and kidnappings in Israel on Oct. 7, do major news organizations resist multiplying calls to describe Hamas as a terrorist organization?
- Wire services, public broadcasters and national news brands with broad readerships reach more diligently for neutral terms.
- To those who mourn or rage in violent times, neutral language may seem performative at best — or even cruel.
- On both sides of the Gaza-Israel Iron Wall, wells of semantic offence rise from aquifers of generational trauma and justified fear.
The enduring offence of neutrality
- Today’s 24/7 feed of alerts and updates includes a stew of alleged facts and newsy opinions.
- Some say this is OK because truth is whatever people come to believe after exposure to a variety of reports.
- According to this view, sometimes dubbed “standpoint epistemology,” truth-seekers should defer to the realities born, especially, of suffering and prejudice.
The reporter’s role as listener
- Professional roles shape collective standards and influence, however imperfectly, practice.
- But for those in conciliatory roles, such as mediators and therapists, a key demand is non-judgmental listening.
- “This didn’t happen (because) Palestinians are just some terrible other form of human beings,” he said.
- For reporters to honour their listening role demands a disciplined withholding of judgment that requires, in turn, a restrained lexicon.
Elevating facts as an act of faith
- Facts matter locally, nationally, and internationally (see war, above).
- For their part, the most responsible journalists know that their choices of stories, sources and words sometimes deepen innocent people’s wounds.
- Minimizing harm stands alongside truth-telling amongst journalists’ frequently conflicting principles but making facts plain could carry more weight than that borne by professional diligence.
- If so, the enduring draw of unembellished facts could express a collective leap of faith — a gut belief that “reporting things as they are” will ultimately do less harm than good.