http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/aug/21/american-broadcasters-avoid-using-word-terrorist/
aug 21 2016 Terrorist attacks continue, but Americans broadcasters still avoid using the term “terrorist” in their coverage, says a close new study by Newsbusters.org. “Though perpetrators often claimed allegiance to ISIS and ISIS celebrated the slaughter, the ABC, CBS and NBC evening news shows chose to call the terrorists ‘gunmen,’ ‘shooters,’ ‘attackers,’ and basically any word in the thesaurus other than terrorist,’ by a ratio of 5.8 to 1,” writes Elliot Polsky, an analyst for the conservative press watchdog.
“In effect, the networks preferred to discuss the tools used in committing a crime rather than the reasoning (such as it is) behind it,” he continues, noting that “gunman” and “shooter” comprised 45 percent of all references to terrorists by the Big Three networks during an entire month of coverage.
“The left’s habit of blaming guns met the media’s discomfort with holding radical Islam accountable for its violence. In that way, they obfuscated the truth about terrorists and did a disservice to their audience,” Mr. Polsky observes.
He found that the broadcasters used the terms gunman or shooter 189 times during the study period in June; they used such terms as killer, attacker, perpetrator, suspect and other neutral terms 83 times, and terrorist or terror group 61 times.
