783 The Fear of Terrorism
Little needs to be added to the video below … other than: People, get real.
But it is clear that politicians and our media have a lot to answer for; terrorism - it seems - exists largely for their benefit. I wrote a letter to the newspaper a while ago (after the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice, France):
The media - the Sydney Morning Herald - have a lot to answer for: What is the reason for terrorism? Do terrorists consider it a success to kill a hundred people? No. They consider their action a success if the incident is plastered all over the media, pages 1 to 5 no less.
Is there nobody in your esteemed editor’s office saying, “wait a minute, isn’t this exactly what they want? Isn’t this just buying into their agenda? Aren’t we mere puppets playing to their script?”
Shame on you, Herald; shame on you for using the lame excuse that "people need to be informed". Your coverage is "news-porn".
It has happened many times, “a bomb goes off in Baghdad, killing hundreds …” and the incident gets a suitably brief mention among other news. That’s where your cover story belongs; don’t give terrorism the free exposure they use for recruitment purposes.
Terrorists 1, media 0.
These are the
statistics from America: Between 2005 and 2015 there were 24 deaths from
terrorism, and 301,797 deaths from guns in the same period.
In Australia we had 3
deaths from terrorism (and frankly, I actually don’t want to count the madman from the Lindt
café attack as a terrorist); to put that into perspective, nearly as many women
die of domestic violence every week.