This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedanta. There's a phrase politicians often use to describe certain acts of violence.

Radical Islamic Terrorism. Radical Islamic Terrorists are determined to strike our homeland

as they did on 9-11, as they did from Boston to Orlando to San Bernardino.

In a speech in 2017, President Trump criticized the media for failing to report accurately on terrorism.

It's gotten to a point where it's not even being reported. And in many cases, the very, very dishonest press doesn't want to report it.

Is the President correct? Has the media held back in its coverage? Is political correctness keeping us from grasping the true danger we face?

This week, we step away from the politicians and the pundits to look at the empirical evidence, social science research into how the American media actually cover terrorist attacks.

We will also look at what effect that has on our perceptions of terrorism and our attitudes to what the Muslim community.

New research has found that there are indeed systematic biases in coverage, but not in the way President Trump suggests.

A perpetrator who is not Muslim would have to kill on average about 7 more people to receive the same amount of coverage as a perpetrator who is Muslim.

In the second half of the show, we look at another side of the political correctness question about where we draw the line between what's free speech and what's hate speech.

Today on Hidden Brain, what our language says about our politics.

In 2014, two terrorist attacks occurred six months apart. They had eerie similarities.

In both cases, two police officers were shot and killed. In both cases, a third victim was shot as well. Both ended with the perpetrators killing themselves.

In the aftermath of the attacks, investigators learned of criminal records, misdread flags, and anti-government threats on social media.

The first incident occurred in June 2014 in Las Vegas. It was carried out by a husband and wife team.

We learned this afternoon the identities of a Las Vegas couple who ambushed and killed two police officers and gunned down a civilian who tried to stop them.

The couple was Jared and Amanda Miller.

Investigators described Jared and Amanda Miller as anti-government and on a mission to kill police officers.

On the day of the shooting, Jared posted this on Facebook. The dawn of a new day may all our coming sacrifices be worth it.

The Miller's then covered the bodies with a swastika and a gatson flag, first used in the American Revolution, emblazoned with the words, don't tread on me.

They left a note on the bodies of the slain officers. It read, this is the beginning of a revolution.

...