The State Department said Tuesday that the press runs the risk of giving "notoriety" to terror groups that carry out terrorist attacks, and said working to avoid the "glorification" of these events is something the press should worry about.

Spokesman John Kirby said terror attacks involve physical violence as one component, but also involve how the event itself is covered.

"There's also the notoriety that comes with the press coverage from it, the glorification of that through amplification in the mass media," he said.

Kirby made those comments in response to a comment Secretary of State John Kerry made in Bangladesh on Monday, when he said he wished the press didn't cover the attacks as much as it does.

"[I]f you decide one day you're going to be a terrorist and you're willing to kill yourself, you can go out and kill some people," Kerry said. "You can make some noise. Perhaps the media would do us all a service if they didn't cover it quite as much. People wouldn't know what's going on."

But back in Washington Tuesday, Kirby downplayed those comments by saying Kerry was simply referring to the "fact" that press coverage of these events is "something that we all have to be mindful of."

Kirby also indicated that Kerry was not trying to say the press should stand down from doing its job.

"The secretary's views about the media, press freedom and certainly the strength and the power of independent press reporting of events around the world are well-established and well-known by all of you," he said. "I think you all know how much he appreciates the work that you do and the importance of it, the light that you can shed on so many issues."