Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on February 7, 2017

Now comes President Donald Trump's claim Monday at the key US military base overseeing the war on ISIS -- US Central Command in Tampa, Florida -- that the media aren't reporting terrorism for "reasons" the President didn't elaborate upon.

Trump told the CENTCOM audience, "You've seen what happened in Paris and Nice. All over Europe, it's happening. It's gotten to a point where it's not even being reported. And in many cases, the very, very dishonest press doesn't want to report it. They have their reasons, and you understand that."

To "prove" that the media aren't covering terrorism adequately the Trump White House, which is fighting in court to reinstate a refugee ban citing the terrorist threat, on Monday night released a list of 78 "major" terrorist attacks since September 2014, claiming, "Most have not received the media attention they deserved."

This is one of the biggest baloney sandwiches this White House has foisted on the public since ... well ... the "Bowling Green massacre," but it's a much bigger and harder-to swallow helping of baloney because it is the President who is forcing it down our throats rather than one of his aides.

Taking the White House timeline of terrorist attacks, I ran it through the Nexis database, which is an authoritative resource for tracking media hits of all types, including in newspapers, magazines, wire service reports, TV news shows and the like.

The results show that terrorist attacks over the past couple of years are, in fact, some of the most well-reported stories of our times. The total number of media hits for the 78 terrorist attacks that the White House released Monday is 80,878, or about an average of slightly more than 1,000 mentions per incident.

And those numbers clearly understate how much coverage the media have given these incidents because a Nexis search only will display a maximum of 3,000 mentions for any given search.

There are 16 terrorist attacks on the White House list of purportedly under-covered attacks that each elicited more than 3,000 media mentions.

The following are a representative sample:

In Ottawa in October 2014 Michael Zehaf-Bibeau killed a Canadian soldier.

Two months later in Sydney, Man Haron Monis killed two Australians.

In March 2015, 21 tourists were killed at the Bardo Museum in Tunis, Tunisia.

Two months later in Garland, Texas, two ISIS-inspired militants attacked a Prophet Mohammed cartoon contest. Luckily no one was killed except the terrorists.

In Tunisia, also in 2015, 38 were killed at a beach popular with Westerners.

In October 2015, 224 were killed in Sinai, Egypt, when ISIS brought down a Russian passenger jet with a bomb.

The terror attacks in Paris and Nice, France, that Trump cited in his CENTCOM speech also received more than 3,000 media mentions.

The terrorist attacks that didn't get as much coverage were -- surprise --- the ones where there were no deaths or that took place in countries such as Saudi Arabia or Bangladesh where there is little independent media reporting.

In three cases, there were no articles listed in the publications included in the Nexis database, and in each of those cases there were no casualties.

The media, including CNN, have exhaustively covered terrorism around the globe since the 9/11 attacks made the issue a central national security concern.

And how did so many Americans learn about the terrorist attacks they were so scared of? Here's a clue: It wasn't through telepathy.

Below is the official White House timeline of terrorist attacks since September 2014 with my annotations in bold about the media coverage they each received. (There are a number of incorrectly spelled words I have left as they were in the original.)

TIMELINE: September, 2014 - December, 2016

NUMBER OF ATTACKS: 78

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

September, 2014

TARGET: Two police officers wounded in knife attack

ATTACKER: Abdul Numan Haider

406 stories

TIZI OUZOU, ALGERIA

September, 2014

TARGET: One French citizen beheaded

ATTACKER: Jund al-Khilafah in Algeria

140 stories

QUEBEC, CANADA

October, 2014

TARGET: One soldier killed and one wounded in vehicle attack

ATTACKER: Martin Couture-Rouleau

1,509 stories

OTTAWA, CANADA

October, 2014

TARGET: One soldier killed at war memorial; two wounded in shootings at Parliament building

ATTACKER: Michael Zehaf-Bibeau

More than 3,000 stories

NEW YORK CITY, NY, USA

October, 2014

TARGET: Two police officers wounded in knife attack

ATTACKER: US person

477 stories

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA

November, 2014

TARGET: One Danish citizen wounded in shooting

ATTACKERS: Three Saudi Arabia-based ISIL members

10 stories

ABU DHABI, UAE

DATE: December 2014

TARGET: One American killed in knife attack

ATTACKER: Dalal al-Hashimi

24 stories

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

December, 2014

TARGET: Two Australians killed in hostage taking and shooting

ATTACKER: Man Haron Monis

More than 3,000 stories

TOURS, FRANCE

December, 2014

TARGET: Three police officers wounded in knife attack

ATTACKER: Bertrand Nzohabonayo

91 stories

PARIS, FRANCE

January, 2015

TARGET: One police officer and four hostages killed in shooting at a kosher supermarket

ATTACKER: Amedy Coulibaly

More than 3,000 stories

TRIPOLI, LIBYA

January, 2015

TARGET: Ten killed, including one US citizen, and five wounded in bombing and shooting at a hotel frequented by westerners

ATTACKERS: As many as five ISIL-Libya members

837 stories

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA

January, 2015

TARGET: Two US citizens wounded in shooting

ATTACKER: Saudi Arabia-based ISIL supporter

5 stories

NICE, FRANCE

February, 2015

TARGET: Two French soldiers wounded in knife attack outside a Jewish community center

ATTACKER: Moussa Coulibaly

268 stories

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

February, 2015

TARGET: One civilian killed in shooting at a free-speech rally and one security guard killed outside the city's main synagogue

ATTACKER: Omar Abdel Hamid el-Hussein

535 stories

TUNIS, TUNISIA

March, 2015

TARGET: 21 tourists killed, including 16 westerners, and 55 wounded in shooting at the Bardo Museum

ATTACKERS: Two ISIL-aligned extremists

More than 3,000 stories

KARACHI, PAKISTAN

April, 2015

Excerpt from:
Trump's terrorism claim is baloney - CNN

Category: Jewish American Heritage Month
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