The word “Mastermind” has been all over network and cable news chyrons this week.
Observers of the manhunt coverage that followed last week’s attacks in Paris have criticized news outlets worldwide for using flattering language to describe one of the attackers. Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the person who is accused of planning the assaults that left scores of Parisians dead, has been called a “mastermind” by at least a dozen outlets in recent days.
That epithet was applied to Abaaoud after his death Wednesday, with Reuters, The Telegraph and Fox News using this term in their coverage. Chief among the problems with this moniker is that it isn’t even accurate, according to POLITICO’s Jack Shafer:
It doesn’t diminish the horror of Paris slaughter in the least to note that there was nothing “masterful” about the operation that took place last Friday. Nor was any special genius on display at two failed operations from earlier this year, on a high-speed train and in a church, attributed to Abaaoud’s know-how. These two operations—providing shooters with firearms and pointing them in the direction of a group of unsuspecting civilians—took about as much imagination and skill as ordering a pizza. The Paris assault was more complex: Abaaoud allegedly dispatched three teams of attackers to six or seven locations to perform their killing chores. But no true mastermind would brag about the results.
Despite this disconnect, it’s easy to understand why journalists would fall back on this familiar phrase in a chaotic breaking news situation. Those old tropes fit so comfortably into stories written by reporters racing to beat their deadlines. So, for the sake of convenience, we’ve compiled the following list of 11 words that describe the chief attacker without giving him an undeserved IQ boost:
- Ringleader
- Planner
- Architect
- Leader
- Organizer
- Coordinator
- Engineer
- Commander
- Orchestrator
- “Homicidal wacko,” h/t MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell
- “Gigantic f*cking assh*le,” h/t John Oliver
Have additional suggestions that should be on this list? Send them to bmullin@poynter.org or let us know in the comments.
This post has been updated.
