Because modern terrorism threatens democratic values such as personal liberty, free expression, and the limitation of institutional authority, it raises ethical problems for journalists who are drawn into a symbiotic relationship with those who threaten or use violence against a community. Recent terrorist incidents in the United States involving the Hanafi Muslims in Washington, D.C., Anthony Kiritsis in Indianapolis, and Corey Moore in Cleveland have caused a public reconsideration of the role and purpose of journalism in issues that threaten a free society. The responses from the news industry on this issue are libertarian in nature, upholding classical concepts such as free market of ideas, individualism, the self-righting nature of truth, and antigovernmental sentiment. Such a notion of objective journalism exempts the journalists from any moral or ethical response to the issue of terrorism. This lack of concern with values promotes a moral neutrality that evades the issue and determines the journalists' coverage of terrorism according to the economic and organizational imperative of the new media. (Author/MAI)