I have recently watched a Special Report on CNN entitled ISIS Behind the Mask by Clarissa Ward. Having watched the program I just wanted to raise a few points about the report, so here goes;
I suspect the main objective of the report is to shed some light on ISIS ideology and recruitment process. That said in my view there is really nothing in the report that is vastly new about these terrorists organizations and how they operate-there’s been plenty of material in this area. My main concern though is more about inadvertently treating terrorist as TV celebs and giving them a platform to spew/promote their hateful ideology without properly challenging them by experts in religion/psychology-obviously not in the media. Merely asking questions like how they feel about terrorist acts or about the filming of executions is naive to say the least-these are people who have been completely brainwashed/committed to the cause so weak/disconnected talking points like that have no value/achieve nothing but serve as propaganda for terrorist organizations keen not only to exploit security weaknesses but also create confusion in our society about their vial ideology. So my suggestion for media outlets is NOT to cover issues pertaining terrorists/ideology unless there is some level of oversight by people who understand the topic well and able to make an informed judgement about how to pursue it prudently. There are many out there who seek to do us harm and use our democratic/liberal values as a vulnerability point to achieve their objectives (what applies to terrorism also applies to Russian interventions in our electoral processes)-we should NOT give them that privilege.
Here is a post about my views on causes terrorism that you might find interesting