A lie is a lie is a lie. 9/11 was terrorism. (Except at CBC.)

Terrorism.

The definition of that word is widely known and widely accepted.

The Encyclopedia Britannica people define it this way: “Terrorism is the calculated use of violence, or the threat of violence, to create general fear in a population and coerce a government or society to achieve political, religious, or ideological goals.”

By any reasonable and objective standard, that is what happened nearly 25 years ago, on September 11, 2001: terrorism.

On that terrible day, four airplanes were hijacked by 19 terrorists. They piloted two of those planes into New York City’s World Trade Center, destroying both buildings and murdering 2,753 innocent people. Two dozen of them were Canadians.

A third plane hit the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. There, 125 people were slain - military and civilian. The 59 people on board the hijacked American Airlines flight were also killed.

A fourth plane, a United Airlines flight, slammed into a field in Pennsylvania after the hostages attempted to seize control from the four terrorists. Thirty-seven passengers and seven crew members were murdered.

Around the world, pretty much everyone accepts what the word terrorism means. The government of Saudi Arabia - where the majority of the 9/11 killers came from - officially call what happened on that day “terrorism.” No less than Osama bin Laden, who conceived of 9/11, used the word “terrorism” too - although, in his case, he usually applied it to those of us in the West, not him.

So, the word is understood to mean what it means: the use of violence to achieve some goal, political or religious or ideological. That is what 9/11 obviously, inarguably was: terrorism by terrorists.

Except, not at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

This week, I received a memo - presumably confidential - addressed to CBC News staff. It is authored by one Basem Boshra, who is the “Senior Director of Journalistic Standards and Public Trust at CBC News.” In Boshra's memo, reporters are editors are told this:

"Do not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks.”

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