Ardern’s refusal to name the shooter denied him the notoriety media would have granted

Evidence

The promise of reversal came four days after the massacres. New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, proclaimed before parliament, “We, in New Zealand, will give him nothing. Not even his name.” … That twelve-worded manifesto overpowered the seventy-four-page attempt at immortality left by the terrorist that the media, in those four days in between, meticulously analyzed and diligently decoded. Ardern, poised and powerful while speaking on behalf of her tiny island nation before the world, put a halt to that. … She continued, “He sought many things from his act of terror, but one is notoriety. And that is why you will never hear me mention his name. He is a terrorist. He is a criminal. He is an extremist. But he will, when I speak, be nameless.” And one without a name, in our minds today and our memories tomorrow, is dead. Dead even when still alive, poised for a lifetime sentence in prison where his scowl, his memory, and his name will rot alongside him until that irreversible end comes. — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 976

Categorization

• SHARE: For someone tracking strategic counter-terrorism communication: Ardern’s twelve-word policy reportedly caused a measurable drop in coverage of the shooter’s name and manifesto.
• CANDY: Jacinda Ardern’s response to the Christchurch massacre was essentially twelve words: ‘We will give him nothing. Not even his name.’