Why the Media Says “Gunman” Instead of “Terrorist” During Terrorist Attacks

It’s no secret anymore that the mainstream media is a carefully crafted propaganda machine. Fortunately, now that the internet offers such a wide variety of uncontrolled opinions, it’s easier than ever to spot their lies and obfuscations. However, there are still a few very subtle propaganda techniques that the media uses, which are a bit harder to spot.

One of them is the use of the word “gunman” whenever there is a mass shooting. That may sound innocuous, but according to a study by Newsbusters.org, there may be a reason why the media uses that term so much. And make no mistake, they use it a lot.

The study looked at how often broadcasters used certain words to describe a terrorist during the month of June. It turns out that they avoid the word “terrorist” quite often, even when the situation merits it. According to Elliot Polsky, the conservative analyst who led the study, “Though perpetrators often claimed allegiance to ISIS and ISIS celebrated the slaughter, the ABC, CBS and NBC evening news shows chose to call the terrorists ‘gunmen,’ ‘shooters,’ ‘attackers,’ and basically any word in the thesaurus other than terrorist,’ by a ratio of 5.8 to 1.”

You might be wondering if the news is just waiting for all the facts to come in before they label someone a terrorist. However, it turns out that they seem to avoid neutral words like killer, attacker, and suspect, almost as often as they avoid saying terrorist. Polsky points out that basically, the media loves to refer to a killer but the tool they used to kill with, over anything else. You see where this is going right?

“The left’s habit of blaming guns met the media’s discomfort with holding radical Islam accountable for its violence. In that way, they obfuscated the truth about terrorists and did a disservice to their audience.”