Journalists push back against Trump's claim that terror acts go unreported
President Trump鈥檚 assertion that terrorist attacks go unreported is being challenged by journalists from around the world.
Speaking to US Central Command in Tampa, Fla. on Monday, Mr. Trump suggested that terrorist attacks are so frequent that the media has stopped reporting on them. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e seen what happened in Paris and Nice,鈥� he told military leaders and troops. 鈥淎ll over Europe it鈥檚 happening. It鈥檚 gotten to a point where it鈥檚 not even being reported.鈥�
Trump further indicated that the press was deliberately choosing not to report on these attacks, saying, 鈥淚n many cases, the very, very dishonest press doesn鈥檛 want to report it. They have their reasons and you understand that.鈥� And on Monday evening, the White House released a list of 78 attacks that it said went unreported or underreported.
The comments 鈥� and the list 鈥� have drawn pushback from journalists across print, online, and broadcast media. The outlets overwhelmingly challenged the claim that events went unreported by pointing to their own coverage, while some objected to what they see as Trump鈥檚 implication that the media is complicit with terrorists.
"We have brave colleagues who everyday are .... The New York Times this weekend had an outstanding piece of reporting about how ISIS has been reaching out, is more involved in some attacks in Europe and abroad," Washington Post columnist David Ignatius said on CNN's "The Lead" on Monday in response to Trump鈥檚 statement.
The list of unreported and underreported terror attacks follows Trump鈥檚 temporary ban on travelers and refugees from seven majority-Muslim countries, a ban he said would help prevent terrorist attacks. (The ban is currently on hold, following a ruling by a Seattle judge on Friday, though the Department of Justice has appealed the ruling).聽
The underreporting of terror attacks became part of the conversation when White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway attempted to justify the ban by reference to a 鈥淏owling Green massacre鈥� which she said had gone unreported. Though this massacre never occurred 鈥� the two Iraqis arrested there in 2011 never committed an attack in the United States 鈥� and Ms. Conway later said she had misspoken, the incident may have inspired Trump鈥檚 assertion that attacks are not being reported.
A White House official said that the 78 attacks listed were underreported incidents 鈥渆xecuted or inspired by ISIS鈥� from September 2014 onwards. Heavily reported incidents like those in Paris; Orlando; San Bernadino, Calif.; and Nice, France all made the list, however.
Several media outlets took the list and critiqued it by pointing to their own coverage. USA Today, for instance, wrote:
During the period in question, USA TODAY cited on the list. Many of the stories about the major attacks at home and abroad appeared on the front page of聽USA TODAY print and digital聽editions.
The BBC , linking to its own coverage of the incidents. It also mentions those cases on the list 鈥撀爄ncluding Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in January 2015, and Paris in April 2015 鈥� where there are no recorded instances of a terrorist attack, and suggests alternate incidents 鈥� such as arrests 鈥� to which the White House might be referring.
Washington Post correspondent Philip Bump took a different tack, suggesting that not every attack made the news as a result of limited news resources:
Filtering what to cover is very different than suppressing information. On any given day, local newspapers and news broadcasts .
Numerous media noted that the list included only terrorist acts considered to have Islamic motives, while excluding events like the recent attack on a mosque in Quebec City and the Charleston, S.C., shooting by Dylann Roof, motivated by race.
Though the president鈥檚 criticism of news media is nothing new, some also see the comments as signaling a shift in his relationship with the press as he tries to cement himself as a 鈥渢ough on terror鈥� president.
鈥淲ith his comments on Monday, Trump implied that the media is complicit in making terrorists successful,鈥� writes The Washington Post鈥檚 Mr. Bump. 鈥淗e鈥檚 never before tried to push the media into the 'against us' circle alongside those who commit acts of terrorism 鈥撀燼t least, not so explicitly.鈥澛�
