What is an activist?

Matthew Hoy
By Matthew Hoy on June 25, 2006

One of the editors at the Union-Tribune once mentioned that his daughter worked as an "activist." He paid to send her to UC Berkeley, so it shouldn't come as a big surprise. I would've made some crack about him spending all that money to give the kid a college education only to have it wasted by becoming a low-paid "activist," but I'm a journalist, so I've no room to speak.

However, this article from the Agence France Presse, has made me think twice about what exactly my colleague's daughter is doing.

Three Palestinian activists were killed early Sunday in an attack on an Israeli military post on the border between Israel and the south of the Gaza Strip, the group Committees of Popular Resistance announced.

Military sources in Jerusalem said several Israeli soldiers were also killed or wounded in the attack near the Sufa and Kerem Shalom crossing points.

Palestinian activists fired anti-tank rockets at an Israeli unit protecting the Kerem Shalom crossing point. An armoured vehicle was hit full-on, the military sources said without giving details. [emphasis added]

I realize that much of the media works under the preconception that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter," but now we've got "one man's militant terrorist is another man's activist"?

And members of the media wonder why they are held in such low esteem.

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