Reuters on the word 'Terrorist'
Apparently concerned about the misinterpretation of language at this
highly charged time, Reuters's head of global news, Stephen Jukes, has
directed his staff to avoid the word "terrorist" in describing those who
flew airliners into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. "We all
know that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter," Jukes
said. We have learned from not necessarily reliable sources that the
following memo, which we have not bothered to authenticate, was
subsequently circulated to all Reuters bureaus:
FROM: Chief, Reuters archive
TO: All archive staff
In keeping with the spirit of the recent directive from our global news
head, all archived Reuters stories are to be revised to eliminate
judgmental language and maintain strict moral neutrality. Among the
changes we will be making:
• No more "Jack the Ripper" references. London's most famous mystery man
(the term "murderer" is no longer acceptable) will henceforth be
referred to as "Jack the amateur tracheotomist and abdominal surgeon."
• The word "assassin" will not be applied to John Wilkes Booth. He will
be described as "an actor who briefly visited President Lincoln's box at
Ford's Theatre."
• The phrase "Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor" will be replaced by
"an unannounced Sunday morning aerial tour of Oahu's coastline by
Japanese pilots."
• The Khmer Rouge will no longer be identified as "genocidal
guerrillas." Their new modifier is "forceful farm labor recruiters."
• "Truck bomber" will be deleted from all references to Timothy McVeigh
and will be replaced by the descriptor, "the man who left a vehicle
containing volatile cargo in a no-parking zone."
-- from The Washington Post ( http://www.washingtonpost.com )
Sunday, October 7, 2001; Page B03
