by A.P. Schmid

About the author: A.P. Schmid is a historian and associate professor of international relations at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. He serves as the university’s senior research fellow at the Center for the Study of Social Conflicts and is research director for the Interdisciplinary Research Project on Root Causes of Human Rights Violations.

Many observers see what Eugene H. Methvin calls a “symbiotic relationship” between insurgent terrorists and Western news media. Western media have been blamed for being “accomplices” to terrorism. Television, in particular, has been singled out for criticism. Richard Clutterbuck called it the most powerful weapon in the terrorist’s arsenal. Margaret Thatcher said that we “must find a way to starve the terrorists and hijackers of the oxygen of...