Terrorism's indispensable allies by Joe Sobran
Terrorism isn't a threat; it's an unnerving nuisance. Most of the panic it causes is due to news media coverage, rather than to the material human harm it does. In our time it's easy to mistake a dreadful local incident for a general threat – or even an attack on civilization itself, as Blair, playing Churchill, calls the latest bombings.

We should never think about terrorism without considering the role played by media amplification. "You give me the pictures, and I'll give you the war," the publisher William Randolph Hearst is supposed to have said. That was even before the coming of radio. Today he might have said, "You give me the runaway bride, and I'll give you a worldwide sensation."

Terrorism, in order to have full effect, requires three elements: terrorists, politicians, and electronic media. We need to think of it in conjunction with its indispensable allies. What if they gave a bombing, and nobody covered it?

- posted by SARTRE @ 8:07 AM