Is our media helping the terrorists win?

[Bengalzona]

(11-29-2015, 03:58 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: So today's sermon at church the pastor talked about two sides to the story. Lutheranism looks at the two parts to scripture: Law and Gospel. But she discussed the two (or more) sides to any story, and today she specifically brought up the media coverage of the Paris attacks. You may remember that I mentioned she was in Paris with her husband during the attacks. She talked about coming home to the media coverage of the events and everything in the media was fear driven. All the focus was on the attackers, on the devastation, on the lives lost, on the hunt for more perpetrators.

The story untold, she said, was the morning after the attacks. As they left their hotel that day the bakeries and cafes were open and bustling, the morning joggers were out for their runs cracking jokes with each other. There was mourning, as seen by parents giving flowers to their children to lay at the immediately present memorials to those slain. But it was a story of love and compassion. It was a story of life moving on after a tragedy and not letting the terrorists win. But this was not the story they saw when they got back to the U.S.

So if the goal of terrorism is to cause terror in the populous, to force change through fear, it seems to me that our media is focusing on the story that furthers their cause. It seems to me that what our media chooses to focus on is aiding the terrorists. Do you agree with this? If so, why do you think it is the case. It goes far beyond the old adage of "if it bleeds it reads" to me. Why do we continue to let it happen? The people buying ad time, the people absorbing the information and buying the subscriptions, it's all supporting this sort of thing. Can we do anything to put a stop to it?

I agree.

The media went nuts over the Paris attacks. But this was not the first time there have been bombings in Paris:
- There were a series of 5 bombings in 1986.
- In 1995, the Paris Metro, the Arc De Triumph and a Jewish school in Paris were bombed.
- In 1961, a bomb killed 28 on a Paris train.
- In 1972, A Muslim bookstore in paris was bombed by a neo-Nazi group.
- In 1984, a Turkish National Intelligence operation exploded 3 bombs at the Armenian Memorial Building in Alfortville, a suburb of Paris.
- This was in retaliation for the Armenian bombing of a Turkish Airlines check-in counter in 1983.

And how many of these had we heard about?

Terrorists and bombs are nothing new in Europe and France, and in Paris in particular. And they learned long ago that life must go on despite the disruption. We are the ones who are fixated upon these events. Modern media is driven by the fixation of our own population. We have people here who want to be scared.