One Man's Terrorist is Another Man's Freedom Fighter?

Saw this interesting article in the New York Times today about how a Muslim separatist group in Xinjiang was issuing threats of violence during the Olympics:

BEIJING — A terrorist group seeking an independent Muslim state in western China has released a video threatening an attack on the Olympic Games here, according to an American organization that tracks terrorist Internet posts.

I find it somewhat interesting that the press generally follows the Chinese government position that these groups are terrorists organizations that are essentially illegitimate. On the other hand, with Tibetan groups, the US media generally follows the line of the Tibetan dissidents in describing the events in Tibet.

So is it that the Tibetans are better at working the media? Or is it that the Xinjiang dissidents fall into a preexisting media narrative about Muslims being terrorist organizations? I'm hardly an expert at this but I'm sure it's probably some of both...

-- Andrew MacDonald