You would think that Reuters, a British company, would have respect for the English language, but they still consider the terrified murderer photographed below an “insurgent.” 
Here’s how the great impartial “Olympians” at that news agency describe the photo:
A suspected insurgent asks residents for mercy after they caught him planting explosives under civilian vehicles, at a busy area in Baghdad, January 3, 2005. Insurgents killed 17 Iraqi police and National Guards on Monday in another bloody spree of ambushes, bombings and suicide attacks aimed at wrecking Iraq’s January 30 national election. (via Michael Totten)
Oh, well, I take it back. He’s a “suspected insurgent.” We don’t know for sure from this photo whether the fellow can officially be elevated to the exalted plain of full “insurgent” – a veritable Emiliano Zapata perhaps. Never mind that workaday Iraqis might call this dude a “terrorist” because he is about to blow as many of them to smithereens as possible, Like my friend Omar, they must be “misguided.” (Apologies, Omar, that’s American sarcasm, though I imagine you know that.) Reuters knows best. Only through impartiality can one arrive at “the truth.”
Of course that is a Big Lie. Reuters is no more impartial than I am. Language itself is not impartial–it always seeks to persuade, covertly or overtly. The word “insurgent” glamorizes fascists and its use assists the fascist cause. Do I go too far? Let me ask the people at Reuters a simple question, although I am dubious any of them would respond. Can they identify one single Iraqi “insurgent” whose politics was not Baathist or Jihadist, both different sides of the fascist coin? Well, I realize some are common criminals as well, but other than that… I’m waiting…
MEANWHILE: Greyhawk comments on journalistic ethics.
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13 Comments
1. William Young:Well, if he’s just a suspected insurgent, wasn’t he caught allegedly planting explosives?
Jan 5, 2005 - 6:05 pm 2. truepeers:I followed the links but couldn’t find out what happened to this guy; it would be interesting to learn. So far, it seems the Sunni-Baathist reign of terror continues. But according to whether they ripped the guy limb from limb, let him go, or turned him over to the authorities, what does it suggest about the crowd’s level of fear, political sympathies?
Jan 5, 2005 - 6:17 pm 3. David Thomson:The odds are that he is a Baathist thug. A religious motivated terrorist would have likely been thrilled to die for Allah. The latter would just pull out a grenade and kill everybody within the immediate vicinity—including himself. The Baathist element is probably getting frustrated. Things are getting better in Iraq, and realistically they do not have a future. The religious crazies are our real long term threat. Baathists are secularists who wish to enjoy the here and now. Hoping for rewards in the hereafter leaves them indifferent. Iím sure they are about to throw in the towel. Will they simply leave Iraq? Is this particular guy someone who lacks the financial resources to move to Syria or another friendly nation?
Jan 5, 2005 - 6:28 pm 4. Old Dad:This tub may or may not be an “insurgent,” but he’s certainly looking for a Baathist meal ticket. Will blow up infidel Americans for food.
Jan 5, 2005 - 6:50 pm 5. PeterUK:Roger a link to Reuters Board,and other useful info.http://about.reuters.com/aboutus/overview/board.asp
Jan 5, 2005 - 7:02 pm 6. Mark in Mexico:I’m trying to imagine Don Emiliano as a fat, shirtless slob cowering in a gutter. Too big a stretch even for my fertile imagination.
Jan 5, 2005 - 8:49 pm 7. Morgan:You mean some Iraqis really don’t support the “insurgents”? Quick, somebody wake up Kos.
Jan 5, 2005 - 9:42 pm 8. Ramrod:All I can say is, I stopped reading Reuters a couple of years ago when, in answer to an indignant comment from me, they stated their now famous stance that one person’s terrorist is another person’s freedon fighter. Let the Iraqis have this guy, they have to start taking their country back sometime.
Jan 5, 2005 - 11:35 pm 9. PeterUK:If the news agencies insist on a position of comlete impartiality they should be treated as third party in a conflict and all the privileges of a western news media removed,they should be treated like al Jazeera.
Jan 6, 2005 - 4:23 am 10. Terrye:Well to hear many of the left tell it this guy has nothing to fear, after all the Iraqis are bravely supporting the insurgents who are taking back their country from the evil Americans who pursued an illegal war to steal oil and who actually drove the entire population of Fallujah from their homes so that they could better slaughter and maim them.
No doubt the 18 men and boys found in Mosul today wanted to die or at least deserved to die.
This goes beyond language, this is rooting for the bad guys and what does that say about Reuters?
Someday this will be over and Iraqis like Omar will know who their friends are and are not, and the folks at Reuters will have to deal with that. They can’t do this forever.
When the election takes place will the same people who love to say that every vote counts be opently rooting for the people who want to stop an election in Iraq?
After all if the people there do not support the election, what is there to stop?
Jan 6, 2005 - 6:23 am 11. Sandy P:If he had lost 20+++ pounds, he might have been able to get away.
Jan 6, 2005 - 7:23 am 12. skunkbuster:Hmmmm..this may be an oversimplification, but I’ve never seen any pictures of tubby Iraqis unless they were connected to the Baath party. This guy looks like a classic “Former Regime Loyalist” rather than an “insurgent”. Maybe the folks at ITM can inform us?
Jan 6, 2005 - 10:30 am 13. Daniel Calto:It’s stunning how the mainstream media relies on outmoded or failed memes and themes. I thought these guys had their ear to the ground for new trends and the changing Zeitgeist. As pointed out recently in the WSJ, 2004 marked the unmistakable and terminal decline of the “terrorist as freedom fighter” meme in the vast majority of the world. Between Beslan and Iraq and the death of the original excrable poster child of the “movement,” Yasser Arafat, it’s been a real lousy year for this stupid and failed idea.
I don’t know if reporters are just especially stupid or too lazy to bother to update their repertiore of cliches. Please get a new set, slackjaws, the ones from the late 1960’s are too retro!
Yes, many people in the media, in the Arab world, in the U.N., and muddledheaded liberals still seem to be “grappling” with the supposed “complexities” of the idea that terrorism against civilians is totally unacceptable, and are still trying to carve out special exceptions for the wily Israelis (I guess six-year-old little girls in Tel Aviv deserve to be blown up on buses), American soldiers in Iraq, Iraqi defense forces, Darfurians, and other unworthy groups, but this idea is dying as surely as the idea that command economies are a great way to achieve peace and prosperity died a slow and unrepented death.
Jan 6, 2005 - 1:37 pm