What do you call the American who is suspected of killing ten people in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York on Saturday? Is he a ‘shooter’, a ‘white man’ or a ‘terrorist’? And do you call this crime a shooting or an attack?
Not unimportant, because by choosing between these terms, a news medium shows how it sees the world. In recent years, several researchers have found that a Muslim who shoots people dead is quickly labeled a “terrorist” by the news media, but white supremacists who do the same are more likely to be seen as confused gunmen. According to the Utrecht professor and terrorism expert Beatrice de Graaf, there is now more discussion in the US about the choice of words. “The media there spoke of an ‘eighteen-year-old boy’ or a ‘teenager’. They often tend to link the crime of a white terrorist to his mental health or childhood problems. There was now more criticism of that.” She also noticed that comments were made on how neatly the man was arrested: “While a black man is usually shot immediately, even if he has not done anything.”
This time there is no clear picture in the Dutch news media. Only The Telegraph and NRC called the man a gunman and not a terrorist. NU.nl did call him a terrorist, NOS News and Fidelity spoke of an act of terrorism. Although the suspect calls himself a fascist, racist and anti-Semite in his manifesto, hardly anyone adopted those terms. Only left-wing opinion sites Joop and Krapuul speak plainly of a “fascist terrorist”.
De Volkskrant and others left the qualifications of the attack to President Biden, who was quick to speak of a “domestic act of terror” with a “racist motive”. According to De Graaf, Biden’s statement was a remarkable break in the trend: “Biden said this because he wants to change the law so that domestic terrorism can also be punished. For most Americans, terrorism is something foreign groups, like Al Qaeda, do.”
Highly politically charged
When is someone a terrorist? According to the definitions, he must commit violence for a political, social or religious motive, says De Graaf. The violence must also be intended to frighten a wider audience than the direct victims, to disrupt society, or to reinforce certain demands.
Also read: Shooter in Buffalo believes in ‘population theory’, a widely shared idea in the US
According to the NRC Codewhich sets out the newspaper’s journalistic principles, the term terrorist is “highly politically charged” and editors should use it cautiously. More concrete descriptions such as “gunner” or “bomber” are preferred. De Graaf agrees: „In science we speak of a essentially contested concept – a term that is always contested.”
The man from Buffalo also became a lone wolf called. Can a gunman acting alone also be a terrorist? Or does he have to operate from a group? De Graaf: „We call such a perpetrator as in Buffalo a lone operatorHe acts alone, but feels himself part of a community of people who think the same, some of whom he actually receives recognition, and whom he wanted to call with his manifesto to follow him. So the ‘lonely’ in ‘lone operator’ is relative.”
All the news media cited the man’s racist motives. NRC† Fidelity and RTL Nieuws also made the connection with the repopulation theory – the fear of a major ethnic cleansing of white people. According to De Graaf, making this connection with ‘facilitating’ ideologies is important: ‘Research shows that people who promote such ideologies also play a role, such as Tucker Carlson on Fox News or Unheard of News on public broadcasting with the population theory. And perhaps also have a responsibility. If we hold Salafists responsible for jihadist terrorism, then the population supporters also bear a responsibility for making radical ideas socially acceptable.”
Research shows, she says, that if these kinds of theories are normalized on television, for example, the statistical chance of an attack increases. Conversely, it decreases again when the attraction dries up. “So, based on that theory, it is better for the prevention of terrorism that people who spread the idea of repopulation should at least distance themselves from this violence.”