What do you call a couple who espouse an extremist, anti-government ideology and kill two policemen and a bystander while draping one of their victims in a flag associated with a political movement?
After Sunday’s shooting spree perpetrated by just such a couple in Las Vegas, many in the media declined to use one potential label: terrorists.The article goes on to quote several Muslim Americans who are quick to note, rightly, that had the shooters been Muslims, the "terrorist" label would have been slapped on immediately by the media. Why doesn't that term apply to right-wing domestic terrorism of the kind we saw in Las Vegas (or Georgia just a few days earlier)?
“If it’s an al-Qaeda attack, you can bet it will affect the resources and how we respond to it,” [Brookings Institution counterterrorism expert Daniel L.] Byman said. But “many of the objectives [of right-wing extremist groups] are close enough to legitimate political movements. It would be hard to take them on as a whole without causing a lot of discomfort” among people who don’t have violent aims. (our emphasis)Ah, that's the crux of it: it might cause "discomfort" among the (so far) non-violent right-wing crackpots to be too closely associated with the violent ones; and, of course, that "discomfort" may cause a reaction, which in turn could cause some bottom line "discomfort" to the media companies. So, it's better to leave it at "anti-government ideology," if you have to mention ideology at all. Meanwhile, the right-wing domestic terrorists get more and more phobic, more estranged, more hateful, more violent, while they're continuously stoked to mindless rage by their own right-wing media bubble and craven pols.
The "mainstream" media thinks ignoring the reality will make everything nice-nice, but it's only postponing the time when these dangerous loons will have to be weeded out and confronted in order to safeguard our democracy. Discomforting or not.
