News coverage over the past 48 hours of the Orlando nightclub attacks has shown how corporate media use specific vocabulary to manipulate public perceptions and perpetuate harmful stereotypes and xenophobia.
Typical news media tweet before shooter’s ethnicity known.
In the early hours of June 12, as reports poured in about a shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, news outlets were reluctant to characterize the incident beyond calling it an act of violence.
With little information beyond “a shooting has left a number of people of dead in a nightclub,” the Twitter accounts of major media outlets used the contextually neutral language of “shooting” to describe the situation:
- ABC News, 4:34 AM, June 12: “NEW PHOTO: Multiple injuries following shooting at Orlando nightclub, say police”
- Boston Globe, 6:06 AM, June 12: “UPDATE: Orlando police call the scene of a nightclub shooting a “mass casualty situation”
- Wall Street Journal, 8:45 AM, June 12: “Orlando police: shooting at gay nightclub kills 20, wounds 42”
- Reuters, 9:50 AM, June 12: “FBI briefing on Orlando nightclub shootings that killed 20, wounded 42 delayed.”
It’s important to note, however, that early in the morning law enforcement had already alerted the media and the public to the fact that they were treating the event as an act of terror. ABC News reported as much at 7:42 AM, tweeting, “Police: Investigating Orlando nightclub shooting as an ‘act of terrorism.’” Yet there was no move to label the event as such by mainstream media sources until the shooter’s ethnicity was revealed—at which point the language began to change.
Typical news media tweet after shooter’s ethnicity known.
Once the shooter was identified as Omar Mateen, a US citizen of Afghan descent, the narrative changed. After this South Asian ethnicity was revealed, news media began calling the attack an act of terror. At 9:01 AM, CBS News tweeted: “JUST IN: Orlando nightclub shooter ID’d as Omar S. Mateen, law enforcement sources tell @CBSNews.” Just ten minutes later, the way CBS was discussing the crime had changed: “Authorities ‘leaning towards Islamic terrorism’ as motive, @CBSNews‘ Pat Milton reports:”
Over the next couple of hours, the new descriptor spread throughout corporate media:
- CNN, 9:57 AM, June 12: “Authorities say they consider the Orlando mass shooting an act of domestic terror”
- New York Post, 10:10 AM, June 12: “‘Radical Islamic terrorism’ is being eyed in the Florida gay nightclub rampage”
- Orlando Sentinel, 10:28 AM, June 12: “50 dead in nightclub terrorism attack, state of emergency declared”
- New York magazine, 10:41 AM, June 12: “Suspected terrorist attack on Orlando gay club leaves 50 dead, 53 injured”
- Fox Nation, 11:42 AM, June 12: “’An Act of Terrorism‘: As Many As 50 Shot Dead, 53 Wounded in Possible Islamic Terror Attack at Nightclub”
Glenn Greenwald asserted in June 2015 that “terrorism” is “a completely malleable, manipulated, vapid term of propaganda that has no consistent application whatsoever.” Greenwald was writing in response to the Charleston church massacre and the news media’s unwillingness to call that event an act of terror.
But it’s quite obvious that for today’s news media, the vocabulary of “terrorism” does have a consistent application: It means, overwhelmingly, acts of violence committed by Muslims and seen as targeting the West—as many media confidently portrayed the nightclub attack, although that narrative may become more complicated as details of Mateen’s life and the massacre itself emerge.
For an example of that double standard of terminological application, consider the events that unfolded only hours after the Orlando attack.
Heavily armed white man described as “planning to attend Pride parade.”
As the nation reeled from the nightclub shooting, law enforcement in Santa Monica arrested a heavily armed Indiana man headed to the LA Pride parade. James Wesley Howell was quickly identified as a white man, distanced from the Orlando attacks, and treated very differently by the news media:
- The LA Times reported that “Santa Monica police spokesman Saul Rodriguez said detectives are “not aware of what the suspect’s intentions were at this point.”
- The Daily Mail said that while Howell’s car was filled with “three rifles, a substantial amount of ammunition and 5 lb of mixed Tannerite powder, which can be used to make a pipe bomb,” and while Howell was “on the way to the LA Pride event to meet a friend, and ‘wanted to harm’ people there,” authorities “were still trying to establish Howell’s motives.”
In fact, Howell’s ethnicity and lack of ties to the Orlando shooting and Islam made his potential attack a non-story, despite him being heavily armed and ready to cause the same levels of carnage as Mateen. Social media accounts for major news organizations outside of LA almost exclusively referred to Howell as a “heavily armed man,” and most organizations mentioned his arrest only once on social media, if at all:
- Wall Street Journal, 2:36 PM, June 12, only mention: “Man with weapons, explosive material arrested in LA, said he was planning to attend Pride parade”
- ABC News, 5:02 PM, June 12, only mention: “Heavily armed man arrested in LA tells police he was in the area for city’s gay pride parade”
- Reuters, 6:53 AM, June 13, only mention: “Heavily armed man arrested on way to LA gay pride parade”
- Boston Globe, 4:13 PM, June 12, one of two mentions: “Heavily armed man arrested in California was headed for pride parade”
When those who wish to use violence against innocent people are unidentified, they are referred to as “shooters” and their attacks as “attacks” or, in the case of Orlando, as “shootings.” It’s not until the perpetrators are identified as non-white people with an otherized cultural background that the media uses the word “terror.”
This manipulation of language by news media has shown quite clearly that the term “terrorism” refers not to the acts themselves, but rather to the ethnicity and specifically defined ideology of the perpetrators of the attacks.
Eoin Higgins is a journalist and historian from Western Massachusetts. You can find more of his work at eoinhiggins.com and follow him on twitter at @EoinHiggins_.
I suspect that this person had more homophobia, but did he or did he not call
911 and state that he was working or associating himself with IS/Daesh?
Terrorism means violence acts designed to terrorize masses of people to
force them to political or military end.
Every time some horrible thing like this happens Liberals/Progressives ,..
whatever, cannot always claim it is not terrorism or not done in opposition
to our country and people.
The ones that are making the hateful acts are those we are calling terrorists.
They are killing people and trying to make us all scared … but for what purpose
I do not really know. What do they want?
Terrorism in Germany in the 20’s and 30’s was done to show Germans they
needed protection of the Nazis … it was fake and it was called provocation.
How do we know that was not the case here in some way.
The thing we need to NOT do is to get emotional and make decisions in the
heat of an event like this. That is why I think President Obama is right to
make statements acknowledging the tragedy and reminding us that we will
get justice and find a way to protect ourselves.
While Donald Trump tries to rile up everyone when we are hurting and upset
and make political points out of it. That is wrong.
I think the article was a warning that calling the insane act of one angry young man who could easily access horribly lethal weaponry “terrorism” is a huge problem that precludes any discussion of actual causes and solutions…
USAmerica = too many guns, too much crazy…
I don’t disagree with anything you said there Chet, but what is the cause for too much crazy? I think it is a sign that just about everything the US does in our society is aimed at profit, and that model simply does not work if you want to have a great civilization and life for people. All the millions of people who have to live here and get ignored and abused and uncared for in order for a few at the top to claim they are free and have liberty is too high a price to pay for everyone. I do not think this is about guns, and we have found out that the system we have in place almost worked as one gun dealer did not sell to this guy and reported him. I think it makes sense as a next action to analyze why that did not work. I think it is because like most things in America the money to do this that should be paid in taxes is in offshore tax havens and in financial gambling investments of the rich instead of doing anything productive. That is the big problem.
I’d buy “too many crazies with guns.” The fix? Perhaps allow licensed gun dealers the legal discretion to not to sell specific types of weapons to prospective buyers THEY deemed unfit. Yes, it may be legalizing discrimination and if it were done for restauranteurs or clothiers I’d scream bloody murder..
TERRORISM — MUSLIMS AGAINST IMPERIALISM
Terrorism is Muslims against Western expansion, Muslims using force to stop the brutal imperialism of Western expansion. The goal being to stop the trading of Western war materials for Middle-East oil.
So, as the suspect of this Orlando mass murder was not a Muslim, as he was not a practicing Muslim and did not belong to any Muslim congregation, it is absolutely impossible for his actions to be terrorism.
In regards to pro-war Obama and pro-war Hillary being more pro-war then Donald Trump, surely the public knows the score and that is why Trump will be our next President.
but did he or did he not call 911 and state that he was working or associating himself with IS/Daesh?
He also said he was working with al Qaeda and other rival groups. My working theory is he wanted attention, not that he had any particular allegiance to any terrorist organization.
I could not refute that, in same way he wanted to manipulate the system and the public with this act of terror and murder. So, as a shooter might not be formally connected with Islamic Terrorism, the existence of Islamic Terrorism as the biggest most violent thing that opposed the West in today’s world, it is acting like a catalyst to crystallize and give rational for people’s actions that may be for psychological reasons they don’t understand, and we never get to think about – because these incidents are always used as political provocations for something by our so-called leaders.
‘Every time some horrible thing like this happens Liberals/Progressives ,.. whatever, cannot always claim it is not terrorism or not done in opposition to our country and people.”
How about the fact that We “Liberals/Progressives” have tried to declare that all acts of this type, regardless of ethnicity or social background of the perpetrator as Terrorist acts. It seems though, that as F.A.I.R. has noted and pointed out in the past, “white men can’t be terrorists’, even though they are spewing the same style of rhetoric as the National Socialists Party. Yet the second the media finds out it’s “person of brownness” they can’t call it anything but. They seemed to have learned their lessons from the time of Timothy McVeigh when they were certain it was terrorist act, until the found out it was he. I clearly recall all the media gleefully proclaiming a person or swarthy, dark complexion as being the perp.
So rather than worry about whether to call it ‘terrorism’ or ‘shooting’ based on the color of the person, how about we just call it Terrorism and then try to find out ‘why’. Just because it is always a “possibility’ that an attack may come from a middle east group that hates us, it doesn’t mean that every one who is not white, is automatically ‘working for ISIS or Al Queda”. This one was a homegrown terrorists, lets just keep it at that and work on removing the amazingly and stupid ease with which folks can arm themselves and head out on mass killing.
Certainly white men can be terrorists, I don’t think there is any question.
I might even hypothesize that some part of the all countries do is terrorism
or bullying.
I’d agree that some fraction of our leaders seem to want to lead us towards
fascist agendas … and today that number is greater because anonymous
money plays its greatest role in politics.
Yes, the media, in the heat of the moment is practically useless except for
delivering basic facts, but that is never where it ends.
If we wanted to find out why, this whole predictable argument should be
skipped … but it is not because it is not likely we will ever find out why in
a way that any majority can accept. I think we already know why to some
extent, the way the world is for most people as the rich continue to make it
into their theme park slave state and step all over everyone else and ruin
the planet and any hope for justice. That’s my best guess anyway.
I also agree he was a homegrown terrorist, but do not stop the classification
there … that is unwarranted. He did have a particular background, and to
ignore that in analysis would not be scientific or objective – however it may
have affected him. There is a very toxic situation in the Middle East with
Islam that is hottest at its center, Saudi Arabia and Iran, Sunni and Shia.
I’ll leave it at that for now.
ONLY SOLUTION — PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF NEWS
As news is the new reality that is broadcast just before it become public knowledge, as the corporate rich own/fund all of mainstream news and thereby have sole ownership of the news, surely the only solution is to nationalize the news and so regulate the news that the rich have no ownership or control “whatsoever over reality, the newest of new history.
For example, NPR which is 90% funded by the corporate rich, during the height of the mainstream media brainwash about the “Orlando shooter,” it was broadcast by NPR that when the same kind of “terrorism” happened in Spain just before a major election, an extreme right-wing political party won the election. As this was the reverse of the truth, as the public reaction in Spain caused a liberal anti-war political Party to win the election, we now have tens of thousands of NPR listeners fooled into thinking that Trump now has a better chance of becoming President.
The media is a problem, but NPR is hardly the priority to fix.
When the media finds out that the name of the perpetrator who snatched that child at Disneyland was one “Ali Gator”, there will no doubt be a Muslim-ISIS connection found.
Oh that is just a crock of dyle.
I wrote this earlier to be posted on the FBI’s tip page. Although many write off this line of reasoning as conspiracy theory, I think that that the media’s consistent filtering out of any messages relative to whether the US state or the FBI could kind of filtering in the news is a particularly dangerous form of censorship which reinforces the “code of silence” that is characteristic of our current militarization of the police.
http://www.activistpost.com/2016/06/orlando-shooter-ties-to-the-fbi.html
Based on evidence such at that given in this attached article, there needs to be a Civil Rights and Criminal investigation of members of FBI and their contractors for conspiring to carry out a False Flag Terrorist Attack relative to the mass shooting and murder of the 50+ people in Orlando.
The evidence that needs to be investigated is why there has been no investigation of the FBI/ CIA’s and others’ culpability in these terrorist attacks and whether corrupt “state” sponsored actors are the real criminals who are protecting each other by a “code of silence”.
Also not mentioned is the fact that the FBI is known to regularly (and probably illegally) hire actors like Omar Medeen through large security private contractor groups like C4S to play the role of a terrorist to elicit information from suspected terrorists. In fact, according to this article, there is a possibility that Omar Madeen had been hired by the FBI to investigate and inform on a suspected terrorist, a 70+ year old Muslim cleric in Florida named Hafiz Khan who was sentenced 25 years in prison based on the Informant’s testimony. (Details are in above link.)
What appears to have happened in this case is that Omar Madeen ended up being the “patsy” in a FBI-instigated False Flag attack similar to the way Oswald was probably the unwitting “patsy” in a CIA orchestrated killing of John F. Kennedy.
The value of the false flag ISIS terrorist attacks is that they stimulate demand in the public for a “establishment” pro-Israel, pro-AIPAC candidate like Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump so that the US Security “State” can “legally” appropriate trillions of US tax-payer dollars on arms, oil, security contractors, lawyers and banking companies.
In order to deal with the illegality of this kind of corrupt state crime, I think we need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission like was done in South Africa where the criminal state actors will not be prosecuted if they tell the truth. (See Cry Freedom for an excellent depiction of how this processed worked.) The truth is if we don’t call them to account, this kind of corruption may never be stopped.