You might think that even Reuters would refrain from using PC language to describe the murderers who killed Daniel Pearl. But you would be wrong:
“A Mighty Heart,” adapted from Mariane Pearl’s memoir of the same name, will begin shooting within the next five weeks, the paper said. The book details Pearl’s search for her husband, who was abducted and beheaded by militants in Pakistan in early 2002.
Reader John B. writes, “So cutting off a reporter’s head is not terrorism? Why don’t we just toss the word down the memory hole then?” Reuters already has, and that isn’t going to change. It’s our job, then, to change the definition of the word “militant” when it’s used in a Reuters/BBC context.