This is a quick throwback to a very important article Glenn Greenwald wrote a few years ago about Obama’s policy to call every person killed by drones a “militant” and the media’s willingness to go along. I haven’t been able to see the original article at Salon, perhaps because I need a subscription, but this blog gives a good rundown of the content.
Virtually every time the U.S. fires a missile from a drone and ends the lives of Muslims, American media outlets dutifully trumpet in headlines that the dead were ”militants” – even though those media outlets literally do not have the slightest idea of who was actually killed. They simply cite always-unnamed “officials” claiming that the dead were “militants.” It’s the most obvious and inexcusable form of rank propaganda: media outlets continuously propagating a vital claim without having the slightest idea if it’s true.