Last week in “Militant stupidity” I noted that Fox News has adopted the usage of the Associated Press referring to terrorists as “militants.” I doubt that this is a recent development, but it stuck out like a sore thumb with respect to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is a genocidal terrorist organization. Bret Baier employed the usage in stories last week on Special Report and Anders Hagstrom did as well in a story for Fox News Digital.
The usage is not accurate or clarifying. It is obscurantist at best. I have written Bret Baier twice to ask him when and explain why “terrorists” have became “militants” at Fox News. I also wrote Anders Hagstrom with the same question.
Fox News lists executive Irena Briganti as its media contact. Fox News Digital lists executive Porter Berry. I wrote both of them with the same inquiry.
Baier, Hagstrom, Briganti, and Berry all declined to comment, as they say. More accurately, they all failed to respond. Any Fox News insiders willing to shed light on the issue are invited to write me at [email protected].
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