Hi, everyone. We got a great reminder in the news today that we have to watch our words.

We have to watch the words we use as people, but particularly as journalists. We can easily report

something factually true, but also fail to report accurately by choosing different words or not choosing

to use certain words at all. And we have a great example of this today in our news cycle.

And we're going to take a moment, just do what we call a smarter take. So we have the headline.

I want to talk to you about it, but then I want to talk to you a little bit about how this headline is being reported around the world. So the news today is of an

attack on an Iranian consulate in Syria. Reports suggest Israel is behind this attack. Israel has not

taken responsibility as of this recording, but that could change. Iran says the attack killed high-ranking officers

in their military. And other reports are indicating that these officers particularly belong to Iran's

Revolutionary Guard Corps, an important part of their national defense. So let's pause there for a second. Iran's Islamic

Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, as is often referred to, or written, is designated a foreign

terrorist organization by the United States of America. So Iran considers the victims of this

attack by ranking military leaders,

but it's also true to report that these high-ranking military leaders in other cases

could be referred to as leaders of a terrorist organization or terrorists themselves.

But you likely won't see the term terrorist or terrorism

used very often, if at all, related to the story. And I wanted to talk to you about why.

So this has to do in part with a decision by the Associated Press. The Associated Press is one of the

largest news organizations in the entire world. It avoids using the term terrorist or terrorism. And that decision was made several decades ago in the 1990s. It still remains to this day. And periodically, the Associated Press, because of a news cycle, for example, a terrorist attack that took place in Israel, will have to come out and explain why they're choosing to use certain words not to use others.

But the Associated Press official guidance according to their style book, which is easily accessible, and by the way, their style book is often followed by news organizations around the world.

This style book says this, the terms terrorism and terrorists have become politicized and often

are applied inconsistently. This is their argument for not using them very much. The terms

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