Small Wars Journal

DOJ and FBI Backtrack After Criticism for Removing ISIS from Orlando Transcript

Mon, 06/20/2016 - 10:43pm

DOJ and FBI Backtrack After Criticism for Removing ISIS from Orlando Transcript by Aidan Quigley, Christian Science Monitor

The Department of Justice released edited transcripts from Orlando shooter Omar Mateen on Monday, the day after Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the DOJ and FBI would remove Mr. Mateen's pledges of allegiance to the Islamic State in order to not further IS propaganda. 

Hours later, after backlash from politicians including Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Florida Governor Rick Scott, the DOJ and FBI reversed course, releasing full transcripts and calling the morning's controversy “an unnecessary distraction", as Fox News reported. 

Although some say the decision to edit the transcripts to avoid giving ISIS more publicity was a well-intentioned attempt to fight ISIS's strategy of using the American media for propaganda, others argue the decision to edit the information was censoring the reality of the situation…

A study from Australia's Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think tank, concluded that ISIS has made it difficult to report independently from Syria and Iraq, given many news outlets' reliance on its propaganda footage, and that the extremist group has been able to use its media to significantly shape its coverage in the western press.

The mainstream US media often reports on ISIS using the group's own propaganda directly, terrorism and media expert Brigitte Nacos, an adjunct professor at Columbia University, tells the Monitor…

Read on.