Comment by rewmie | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rewmie | Hacker News Reader

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> And they should be called out when they're used, no matter who by.

I think you're unwittingly proving BBC's point. An objective journalist reports the facts, which means things like who did what to who.

"Calling out" is not compatible with presenting an objective description of the facts. It's the opposite. It's communicating your personal conclusion and trying to attack something you made it your personal target because you disagree in terms of morality.

That's not their responsibility. Their role is not to sneak their personal opinion alongside the objective facts. It's not their role in clear-cut, obvious examples such as a terrorist attack, and it's still not their role in more nuanced topics.

If the reader is able to piece together their own ideas and opinions, why should that be spoon-fed to them?

When I say "calling out" I'm referring to labelling acts as terrorist acts. I probably could have used better wording.

But this argument is all about trying to provide an objective description of the facts. I agree with the BBC here - calling a group a "terrorist group" is an editorial choice, even if we do have government list of terrorist groups. I'd say that the attacks on the music festival and villages near the fence easily qualify for the term "terrorism", but so does Israel's retaliatory bombing of civilian targets. We're still quibbling over definitions (which is IMO inevitable), but at least we're talking about actions, rather than entire groups.

The BBC labels those acts as atrocities. To me, that's a more forceful and loaded word than "terroristic acts"

Yeah I think that's a better term. It's something that can be applied to both state and non state actors, and doesn't make implicit judgments about the legitimacy of either.

Something that is not explicitly said is that the people caring about Gaza split into two groups, pro-Hamas and pro-Israeli. These two groups vehemently oppose each other and believe only their side is right. This is quite different from the society at large who recognize that both sides are guilty and both sides are victims, and don't see any hope to solve this problem in any way.

So of course both sides care about reporting and how each group is presented. There will be more and more pressure for others to take sides and describe what is happening using labels that fit their side of the story.

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