Chicago Tribune ombudsman Don Wycliff addresses the Tribune’s use of the words ‘militant’ or ‘rebel’ — but not ‘terrorist’ — to refer to the Chechen hostage-takers in news stories:
Our eschewal of the word “terrorist” was in keeping with a stylebook policy adopted several years ago, a policy that is in keeping with the journalistic purpose of the news pages: to provide as complete, thorough and unbiased an account as possible of the important news of the day.
No intellectually honest person can deny that “terrorist” is a word freighted with negative judgment and bias. So we sought terms that carried no such judgment.
James Taranto‘s appropriate, tongue-in-cheek reply: “All they did was murder children, after all. Why would anyone want to judge them? That wouldn’t be intellectually honest!”
