Soccer Dad

I'll scratch your back if you blow up civilians

Yesterday Instapundit wrote about the symbiotic relationship between the media and terrorism. He nicely summarized his feelings

Terrorism is an information war disguised as a military operation. The press plays a symbiotic role, and isn't willing to address that.

Looking for something else I found a very telling presentation by the late Katharine Graham, publisher of the Washington Post that shows the reticence Instapundit observed

Terrorist acts are impossible to ignore. They are simply too big a story to pass unobserved. If the media did not report them, rumor would abound. And rumors can do much to enflame and worsen a crisis.

There is no compelling evidence that terrorist attacks would cease if the media stopped covering them. On the contrary, terrorism specialists I have consulted believe the terrorists would only increase the number, scope and intensity of their attacks if we tried to ignore them.

Our citizens have a right to know what the government is doing to resolve crises and curb terrorist attacks. Some of the proposed solutions raise disturbing questions about how and when the United States should use military force.

The public's right to know outweighs all else. And of course what the media does protects freedom - apparently by definition - even though Mrs. Graham acknowledges one mistake. And she even found some experts to support her premises.

Daled Amos has some harsh words for the media (especially the Israeli media)

The international media may perhaps be unaware of the consequences of their doting coverage of terrorists when the consequences are not constantly and blatantly laid at their front doorstep, but what can be said of the leftist media in Israel, when the consequences are seen--and felt--on a near daily basis? It's likely more a result of the overall leftist viewpoint of the media, than anything else. Ideology trumps profit: and the results are no better.

However I think the person who addressed this topic the best, was Lady Thatcher some 20 years ago (I believe in the aftermath of the hijacking of TWA flight 847 and the murder of Robert Dean Stethem)

Democratic nations must try to find ways to starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend.

I know this goes against Mrs. Graham's experts who view terrorism as a call for help that only gets louder if ignored. I disagree, it is bad behavior that is encouraged when it is tolerated and/or understood.

More at Blackfive.

UPDATE: Secular Blasphemy wrestles with the dilemma and mentions a suggestion

Bruno S. Frey suggests not naming the groups and whoever claims responsibility. That may be a good compromise, even as us avid followers of the war on terror want to know even such details.

Technorati tags: Terrorism, News, Media.