Media Inflate Threat With ‘ISIS Plots’ That Don’t Actually Involve ISIS

Media Inflate Threat With ‘ISIS Plots’ That Don’t Actually Involve ISIS
By Adam Johnson

CNN: Suspects 'Accused of ISIS Support'


Contrary to Fox News, these suspects were not lured by ISIS, but by the FBI.






Actually, the suspects were accused of conspiring to support ISIS–a significantly different legal charge.
Last Friday, the FBI announced another harrowing, 11th-hour capture of Americans plotting to join “ISIS” and launch attack within the United States. The case of two Illinois men, Army National Guard Specialist Hasan Edmonds and his cousin Jonas Edmonds, ostensibly involved the former going to Syria to join ISIS there while the latter stayed in the US, plotting to attack “scores” at a military base.

Right on cue, the American media publish dressed-up FBI press releases about the “disrupted” plot, complete with balaclava-wearing stock photos: “FBI Disrupts Plot to Kill Scores at Military Base on Behalf of Islamic State” was the Washington Post‘s headline (3/26/15).

These outlets, as usual, omitted the rather awkward fact that this “ISIS plot” did not actually involve anyone in ISIS: At no point was there any material contact between anyone in ISIS and the Edmond cousins. There was, as the criminal complaint lays out, lots of contact between the Edmond cousins and what they thought was ISIS, but at no point was there any contact with ISIS–the designated terror organization that the US is currently launching airstrikes against.

This distinction may seem like semantics, but it’s actually quite important when trying to accurately inform the public–only 40 percent of whom read past the headlines–about the reality of the ISIS threat vs. the fear-inducing media spectacle that so often inflates it.


MORE:
http://fair.org/blog/2015/04/01/isis-plots-that-dont-actually-involve-isis/