Reuters' Pro-Terrorist Tilt: More than Dishonest Photos

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It’s not just the doctored photos. Apart from the most recent travesty of journalistic ethics, it's worth recalling how Reuters has also tilted its words in favor of those who promote terror and misery around the world.

For example, Iraqis compelled to vote for Saddam Hussein back in 2002 were “defiant” and in a “festive mood,” while Saddam’s capture by U.S. forces a year later was marked by “resentment...of life under U.S. occupation.”

For Reuters’ editors, the first anniversary of 9/11 was a reminder that “human rights around the world” have been a “casualty” of the war on terror, while the second anniversary was a time to point out how “sympathy [for America] soured” as the U.S. actually fought back against the forces of darkness.

A few of the more memorable quotes from the Media Research Center’s Notable Quotables archive:

“Joy at the capture of Saddam Hussein gave way to resentment toward Washington Monday as Iraqis confronted afresh the bloodshed, shortages and soaring prices of life under U.S. occupation.” – Lead sentence of Reuters correspondent Joseph Logan’s December 15, 2003 dispatch, “Saddam Arrest Cheer Fades Into Iraqi Ire at U.S.”

“The suicide hijack attacks on New York and Washington in 2001 produced a remarkable outpouring of sympathy for America, but sympathy soured as Bush declared a vague ‘war on terror’ that he took to Afghanistan and then, far more controversially, to Iraq.” – Reuters’ caption on a September 2, 2003 photo composite of anti-war demonstrators.

“One side prides itself on discipline and travels in well-defined military columns; the other uses guerrilla tactics — sniping at the enemy, harassing them with ‘irregulars’ and disregarding certain generally accepted rules of war. It may sound like the current war in Iraq, but it’s also a description of the conflict between British troops and colonial forces who fought in the American War of Independence from 1775 to 1783. As U.S. and British authorities accuse Iraq of not fighting fairly, some historians have noted wryly that British officers made the same complaints about American colonists in the late 18th century.” — From an April 8, 2003 Reuters dispatch by Greg Frost.

“Defiant Iraqis lined up to show their support for Saddam Hussein Tuesday as Western powers were deadlocked over how to deal with the veteran leader they say threatens world security....Iraqis were in a festive mood as they turned out to vote in a presidential referendum Saddam is sure to win.” – Reuters reporter Nadim Ladki in an October 15, 2002 dispatch from Baghdad.

“Recovery and debris removal work continues at the site of the World Trade Center known as ‘ground zero’ in New York, March 25, 2002. Human rights around the world have been a casualty of the U.S. ‘war on terror’ since September 11.” – Reuters News Service caption for a photo of the destroyed World Trade Center site which was distributed with a story by Richard Waddington headlined, “Rights the first victim of ‘war on terror,’” September 3, 2002.

Oh, and let’s not forget: “We all know that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter and that Reuters upholds the principle that we do not use the word terrorist....To be frank, it adds little to call the attack on the World Trade Center a terrorist attack." – Steven Jukes, global head of news for Reuters News Service, in an internal memo cited by the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz in a September 24, 2001 article.