A free press is necessary in a democracy to keep the people informed. When the people are mis-informed it becomes a perversion of democracy. This is the argument on whether or not the Bush administration has damaged the American democracy or not.

How the press reports events becomes an important issue. Terrorism thrives on media attention and without this media exposure terrorism cannot exist. If the Iraq events were reported as simple criminal activities it would remove the emotional and heroic element from the events and would not be an aid to recruitment, fund raising, and the moral value of the acts would be removed---criminals do not get 72 virgins and sit at the right hand of Allah.

The acts could still be reported, but not using the term terrorism would diffuse the power of the acts. A free press need not exist to perpetuate sensationalism and all media need not copy the tabloid approach.

Publius