al jazeera america

[wesw]

if some whacko who called himself Christian and who belonged to a church full of similar thinking people, shot an abortion doctor or burned down an abortion clinic I doubt that you folks would leave the Christian part out.

according to many polls posted here many more muslims support the terrorists than, I believe, people who identify as Christians would support murdering an abortion doctor.

you guys are just intellectually dishonest about this whole subject and count on people being too stupid too see thru it.
just like the guy who helped set up Obama care was counting on people being stupid.

my only question is what your motives are for being disingenuous.

[Lord Jim]

As rubato points out, that's what a stylebook is for. Van Meek's directive is very much in line with both the Reuters and AP Stylebooks.

Uh, actually no...The guidelines in the standard style books, while still somewhat encouraging the writers to sanitize, are no where nearly as restrictive as the ideologically driven Al Jazeera rules. To give one example:

Al Jazeera:

ISLAMIST – Do not use. We will continue to describe groups and individuals, by talking about their previous actions and current aims to give viewers the context they require, rather than use a simplistic label.

Reuters:

Islamist- A person or organisation advocating a political ideology based on Islam. Islamist is not a pejorative term. Few Islamists advocate violence to achieve their goals. Describe those who do as militant Islamists.

Quite different...

My conclusion is that while rube cited style books, he didn't actually bother to read what they said...(this would be perfectly in keeping with habit)

Deliberately banning relevant and truthful descriptors from news accounts leaves the public mislead and misinformed, the exact opposite of what good journalism should strive to achieve.

On the other hand if your objective is to minimalize and distort the nature of these attacks, regardless of the facts, it's definitely the right move.

[rubato]

The perpetual motion machine of self-justification just goes on and on and on. Should hook up a generator and turn darkness into light.


yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

Sorry I had to call you out yet again on citing a source without reading what it said rube...

You know, there's an easy solution to that problem...

[Crackpot]

There is something to be said about dropping Islamist. The word conferres a tie to Islam and as such develops a sense of unity to those who follow islam. It's more or less defining the "brand" by it's worst elements. Dropping the inferred correlation might do well to undermine even the most tacit support these groups enjoy.