Jim Burns, CNSNews.com
Friday Oct. 5, 2001

"I fail to see how this noun is not an accurate portrayal of the aggressors who committed the acts of violence witnessed by the entire world last month," Watts wrote in a letter to the chief executive officer of the Reuters group in London.

"I am not asking Reuters to be Radio Free Afghanistan. Rather, I am merely requesting that you not sever the word terrorist from your notebook," Watts wrote.

Watts also sent a "Dear Colleague" letter to every member of the House of Representatives, urging his fellow lawmakers to write Reuters with similar complaints.

Earlier this week, Reuters Chief Executive Officer Tom Glocer and Editor-in-Chief Geert Linnebank issued a joint statement regarding the use of the word terrorist in their news stories. They said they believe terrorist is an "emotional term" and is not to be used in future stories.

"This policy has served Reuters and, more importantly, our readers well by ensuring access to news as it occurs, wherever it occurs. As a global news organization reporting from 160 countries, Reuters' mission is to provide accurate and impartial accounts of events so that individuals, organizations and governments can make their own decisions based on the facts," the letter said.

"Nonetheless," the letter continued, "in an internal memo reminding our journalists of our policy in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, a statement was made that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. This wording caused deep offense among members of our staff, our readers and the public at large, many of whom felt this meant Reuters was somehow making a value judgment concerning the attacks.

"This was never our intention, nor is it our policy. Our policy is to avoid the use of emotional terms and not make value judgments concerning the facts we attempt to report accurately and fairly. We apologize for the insensitive manner in which we characterized this policy and we extend our sympathy to all those who have been affected by these tragic events," the letter concluded.

That internal memo referred to in the letter was issued by Stephen Jukes, Reuters' global head of news.

Brent Bozell, President of the Media Research Center, parent organization of CNSNews.com, criticized Jukes in a recently syndicated column.

"To be frank, this man has no moral compass, not to mention any rational idea of what the word freedom means. Thankfully, many journalists who work for Reuters are as horrified by this posture as the other 99.9 percent of Americans. Reuters took sides in the Oklahoma City bombing by describing it as a terrorist attack. Somehow, now the bombings of two cities and the deaths of thousands of innocents don't rise to the level of terrorism," Bozell wrote.

"Like many others from the Switzerland school of media neutrality between savages and civilization, Jukes doesn't have the moral sense God gives a five-year-old child," said Bozell. "How would his news service be operating had its New York bureau been located on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center? Would Jukes still be pledging not to take sides if his own building burned to the ground?"

"The very survival of a free press depends upon a democracy, on countries that stand on a solid foundation of constitutional law. Journalists who benefit from those political protections ought to acknowledge that debt. Sadly, some merely exploit these freedoms while dismissing them as meaningless," Bozell said.

"What kumbaya foolishness," Bozell concluded. "The attacks on America demonstrated that all people on earth should not and cannot be embraced as long as some wage war on the American idea. As the president has said, you're either on the side of civilization, or on the side of the terrorists. There is no middle ground."

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