Omar Mateen’s Wife Arrested for Aiding TERROR. So STOP with the Word Games, Media!
Earlier today the FBI announced the arrest of the widow of jihadi Omar Mateen, the man who ruthlessly killed innocent Americans — in the name of Islam — at the Pulse night club in Orlando, Florida. Noor Salman has been arrested on charges of aiding her husband in the planning of the jihadist attack. There’s one key point that the mainstream media has been leaving out of their headlines about the arrest. That’s right, instead of the headlines identifying Mateen as a jihadi, or even terrorist, they all scream some version of “mass shooter.”
Mateen’s wife was charged with “aiding & abetting the attempted provision of material support to a foreign terrorist organization.”
These are terrorism, not “shooting” charges.
Nevertheless, here is the how the New York Times reported it via headline.
Here’s the CBS News headline.
There are countless other stories that have some variation of the headline “mass shooter” instead of “jihadi” or “terrorist,” and this is nothing new. The American media has always preferred to keep the motive out of headlines regarding jihadi attacks so that they can push another narrative. This, purposeful headline writing is a subject we’ve covered extensively here at Conservative Review.
The word “shooter” is purposely used to push a gun control narrative. CR’s Chris Pandolfo wrote about the difference in coverage of foreign jihadi attacks by American news outfits compared to jihadi attacks on U.S. soil. Pandolfo also highlighted the difference in coverage of the Orlando ISIS inspired jihadi attack.
Other conservative writers have also pointed this out. Here’s what Charles C. W. Cooke tweeted at the time.
Here are the first four UK papers I saw on stands. (I’m visiting family.) pic.twitter.com/xBZmW4erUX
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) June 13, 2016
And here are the first four I looked up in the U.S. Interesting difference in emphasis. pic.twitter.com/twu15ASPk9
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) June 13, 2016
New York Times reporter Adam Goldman also took to Twitter to remind us all about his puff piece on Mateen’s wife.
I interviewed Omar Mateen's wife in October. This was the only time she ever spoke to the media. https://t.co/IPgK2uvhH3
— Adam Goldman (@adamgoldmanNYT) January 16, 2017
The main stream media has made a lot of noise recently about “fake news.” There has also been pushback on misleading headlines.
In this fast paced, 24/7 social media culture, people do often just read headlines. The MSM knows this and uses it to their advantage when pushing a narrative. Today’s headlines are just another example. (For more from the author of “Omar Mateen’s Wife Arrested for Aiding TERROR. So STOP with the Word Games, Media!” please click HERE)
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