It’s surprising to me
that journalists will allow their thoughts—as well as their headlines and
stories—to be shaped by special interests. In this case, the Huffingtonpost has
a story about 100 genetically modified papaya trees being hacked down in Hawaii.
The
story identifies the act as possibly being “eco-terrorism.” As I’ve blogged before, “eco-terrorism” was a term coined by Ron Arnold, who has been an
executive with the Center For the Defense of Free Enterprise for the last 30
years. He opposes environmental concerns.
Since
he first came up with the smear that puts vandals and saboteurs in the same
category as the Boston Marithon bombers and Osama bin Laden, Arnold’s neologism
has become part of the lexicon of the FBI, which now has a definition of domestic
eco-terrorism that is loosely defined to include vandalism. This obviously
pleases Arnold. In an odd sort of cyber-tautology he now cites this FBI definition on the web site of the Center For the Defense of Free Enterprise to
back up his lexicographic campaign.
I
don’t really know much about the Huffingtonpost, but it should be above using
this sort of agenda driven rhetoric. Some folks in the FBI would be happy to
drop eco-terrorism as term that the bureau uses. No one has ever been hurt by
vandals who are motivated because of an environmental agenda, and some folks
have criticized law enforcement agencies, believing that using the term
“domestic terrorism” will get them more funds and more attention from the
press.
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