perfidy

Yesterday, while home sick nursing a case of what, if it wasn't actually the SARS or at least the Avian Flu, certainly felt like it-- shapes in the wallpaper, struggling to breathe, disturbingly high tolerance for daytime television-- I had occasion to watch Fox News.

Now, I kind of enjoy Fox News' teletabloid style, reminiscent of the New York Post (another News Corp. holding) or the nad-hammering attack-doggery of the Boston Herald. But sometimes-- often, for my moderate blood-- they just go too goddamn far.

I was watching coverage of this story, about the two unfortunate civilians working for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, who were shot at a fake roadblock checkpoint yesterday. The TV version of the story referred to this as a "terrorist" incident.

No, No, NO!

I remember what a terrorist attack looks like. This was an act of war. It makes me crazy that acts of terrorism and acts of war are so often conflated by the press and politicians. To be sure, the two are often hard to pick apart these days. We are at war with terrorists and thugs. But if Fox News wants to be horribly irresponsible in the name of ratings and call two victims of a checkpoint shooting "terrorism" than the word becomes weaker, less able to describe the mayhem and horror of a true terrorist attack, especially in the same news cycle that sees nearly 200 die in Madrid at the hands of extremists.