[quote]hedo wrote:
Fox news refers to people who blow themselves up in crowded markets and bus stops as “homocide bombers”. The maninstream media calls them “suicide bombers”. Which term is more accurate?
Is the intent of the bomber to kill others or to simply kill himself? When you answer that question, which is more accurate.
[/quote]
This is a fine example of useful information being stripped in order to make something sound more emotionally satisfying. “Homicide bomber” is nearly redundant as the definition of “bomber” is one who attacks with bombs. It isn’t anyone who detonates explosives or else we would call miners and pyrotechnic engineers “bombers” as well.
By calling an individual a “bomber” we are labeling them as on who attacks with deadly force. People generally assume when they hear the word “bomber” that people are amongst the targets since they usually are.
There are many types of bombers though. If we don’t know whether or not it was a “suicide bomber” then we don’t know if an APB should be out on crazy looking white militiamen and guys named Mahmoud or if we only need to be on the lookout for the that fragment of Mahmoud’s skull. Moreover, the “suicide” bit of information gives us some indication of who may or may not be responsible right off the bat.
In the context of Iraq this can mean whether the attack was most likely Al Qaeda or if the suspected perpetrators were more likely to include non-fundamentalist insurgents.
So if I have to choose two words to carry the maximum amount of information, I’m choosing “suicide bomber”. If you want the maximum emotional appeal though I would suggest adding to “homicide bomber” the words “angry, atrocious, bad, baneful, base, beastly, bitchy, calamitous, corrupt, damnable, depraved, destructive, disastrous, execrable, flagitious, foul, harmful, hateful, heinous, hideous, iniquitous, injurious, loathsome, low, maleficent, malevolent, malicious, malignant, nefarious, no good, obscene, offensive, pernicious, poison, rancorous, reprobate, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, sinful, spiteful, stinking, ugly, unpleasant, unpropitious, vicious, vile, villainous, wicked, wrathful, wrong”.
There’s no redundancy there and we gleen so much more information that we couldn’t have otherwise figured out from that stupid “suicide bomber” term.