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Generally speaking, CBS' In Focus series has been a success. In In Focus, anchor Katie Couric consults the expertise of her network's correspondents, analysts and producers to survey the public policy options surrounding a particular thorny topic. Here she surveys the feasibility of ending the war in Afghanistan by the end of 2014. Here she traces how tax cuts have been a partisan political wedge issue since the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Here she predicts a perpetually mushrooming National Debt. Here she describes the dysfunctional state that is North Korea

Couric's latest In Focus entry had no such scope. She chose the same topic that inspired ABC anchor Diane Sawyer to travel to Washington on Monday: the potential for a successful terrorist attack by al-Qaeda-inspired militants inside the United States. Couric explained that the reason to worry was that "more and more the seeds of terror are being planted right here." Yet her evidence was thin: in the nine years since the attacks of September 11th, 2001, just 58 citizens or legal residents have been "implicated" in domestic terrorist plots; every single one of the eleven alleged attacks that have been uncovered this year has failed. The Christmas tree in Portland Ore was not blown up; the carbomb in Times Square was incompetently built. The one lethal attack In Focus mentioned was the Fort Hood shooting, in which an army psychiatrist is accused of killing his comrades in arms.

CBS' Bob Orr labeled the Fort Hood crime "terrorist"--which stretches the definition almost to breaking point. In common parlance terrorism refers to violent attacks on civilian targets to achieve political ends. Attacks on the military are commonly not included. Soldiers are trained to be on the lookout for unexpected violence and armed to defend themselves. There is no reason to confuse worry about terrorism with the task of making military bases secure.

Andrew Tyndall 12/28/10 10:29:51 pm

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