People inside major news agencies frequently send me information about the bias and journalistic failures overtaking their newsrooms. One of those agencies is the place where I started my career, NPR.
So I know what a big deal this is. For the first time in years, NPR has acknowledged the existence of Islamist terrorism in a headline:
How historic is this? In the new episode, I break it down.
Online, the vast majority of people only read headlines. They don’t bother to click on stories. NPR’s website gets tens of millions of visits, but that’s only a fraction of the audience exposed to headlines.
People share those stories on social media, where the headlines appear. One person can easily see dozens, even hundreds, of headlines this way in a single day. The headlines have the power of memes in people’s social feeds, deeply influencing how they view the world, even on a subconscious level.
So when headlines hide a dangerous global phenomenon, people have no clue how big it is. That’s the case with Islamist terrorism. In recent years, it has skyrocketed.
During that same time period, the media has gone the opposite way, specifically avoiding any mention in headlines. NPR has been part of the problem. How long has it been since an NPR headline acknowledged that Islamist terrorism exists? Nearly a decade — or more, depending on how you measure.
I searched NPR’s website and a tool that scans headlines. Both gave me the same results. In January 2017, an NPR headline said, “Trump Takes On Ambitious Plan to Eliminate Terrorism By Radical Islamists.” Before that, a 2014 headline asked, “Is Syria Becoming A Partner In The Fight Against Islamist Terror?” (Curious sticklers: That capitalization is NPR’s.)
Maybe, just maybe, the folks at NPR are finally listening to those of you who have been using this guidance to email news executives.
Then again, this could be a one-off. After all, this is the agency that admitted it didn’t even consider interviewing victims of an Islamist terrorist attack in Michigan earlier this year, even as they ran a sympathy piece about the terrorist.
It’s up to us to make sure this headline signals a newfound willingness to acknowledge reality. Let’s keep up the pressure.
Thoughts? Questions? Supporters can share them in comments or messages.
JL