Society of Professional Journalists Advocates Whitewashing Islam

Little Green Footballs ^ | 3-5-08 | Charles Johnson

[atomic conspiracy]

If you’ve wondered why so many mainstream media stories about Islamic issues omit important details and draw spurious morally equivalent conclusions, wonder no more. They’re doing it on purpose.

This was apparently released by the Society of Professional Journalists shortly after the 9/11 attacks: Guidelines for Countering Racial, Ethnic and Religious Profiling.

On Oct. 6 at its National Convention in Seattle, the Society of Professional Journalists passed a resolution urging members and fellow journalists to take steps against racial profiling in their coverage of the war on terrorism and to reaffirm their commitment to:

— Use language that is informative and not inflammatory;

— Portray Muslims, Arabs and Middle Eastern and South Asian Americans in the richness of their diverse experiences;

— Seek truth through a variety of voices and perspectives that help audiences understand the complexities of the events in Pennsylvania, New York City and Washington, D.C.

Guidelines

Visual images

— Seek out people from a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds when photographing Americans mourning those lost in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

— Seek out people from a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds when photographing rescue and other public service workers and military personnel.

— Do not represent Arab Americans and Muslims as monolithic groups. Avoid conveying the impression that all Arab Americans and Muslims wear traditional clothing.

— Use photos and features to demystify veils, turbans and other cultural articles and customs.

Stories

— Seek out and include Arabs and Arab Americans, Muslims, South Asians and men and women of Middle Eastern descent in all stories about the war, not just those about Arab and Muslim communities or racial profiling.

— Cover the victims of harassment, murder and other hate crimes as thoroughly as you cover the victims of overt terrorist attacks.

— Make an extra effort to include olive-complexioned and darker men and women, Sikhs, Muslims and devout religious people of all types in arts, business, society columns and all other news and feature coverage, not just stories about the crisis.

— Seek out experts on military strategies, public safety, diplomacy, economics and other pertinent topics who run the spectrum of race, class, gender and geography.

— When writing about terrorism, remember to include white supremacist, radical anti-abortionists and other groups with a history of such activity.

— Do not imply that kneeling on the floor praying, listening to Arabic music or reciting from the Quran are peculiar activities.

— When describing Islam, keep in mind there are large populations of Muslims around the world, including in Africa, Asia, Canada, Europe, India and the United States. Distinguish between various Muslim states; do not lump them together as in constructions such as “the fury of the Muslim world.”

— Avoid using word combinations such as “Islamic terrorist” or “Muslim extremist” that are misleading because they link whole religions to criminal activity. Be specific: Alternate choices, depending on context, include “Al Qaeda terrorists” or, to describe the broad range of groups involved in Islamic politics, “political Islamists.” Do not use religious characterizations as shorthand when geographic, political, socioeconomic or other distinctions might be more accurate.

— Avoid using terms such as “jihad” unless you are certain of their precise meaning and include the context when they are used in quotations. The basic meaning of “jihad” is to exert oneself for the good of Islam and to better oneself.

— Consult the Library of Congress guide for transliteration of Arabic names and Muslim or Arab words to the Roman alphabet. Use spellings preferred by the American Muslim Council, including “Muhammad,” “Quran,” and “Makkah,” not “Mecca.”

— Regularly seek out a variety of perspectives for your opinion pieces. Check your coverage against the five Maynard Institute for Journalism Education fault lines of race and ethnicity, class, geography, gender and generation.

— Ask men and women from within targeted communities to review your coverage and make suggestions.

[m1911]

Here’s two sentences that are fun to put side by side:

1)Avoid using word combinations such as “Islamic terrorist” or “Muslim extremist” that are misleading because they link whole religions to criminal activity.
2)When writing about terrorism, remember to include white supremacist, radical anti-abortionists and other groups with a history of such activity.

So remember kids, it’s ok to tag all whites as supremacists and anti-abortionists as radicals.

Jackasses.

[Cicero]

Wouldn’t it be better to advise journalists to:

Tell the truth.

If you are ignorant about Islam, read up on it.

If you are ignorant of the various Muslim countries, read up on them.

Don’t take anyone’s word for it, either for or against. Do your homework. Read the Koran. Read the basic writings. Read a few histories of Islam. And read a few histories of the Crusades.

Facts, facts, facts. Sure, you should listen to what Muslims have to say for themselves, but do enough studying to know if they are telling the truth or lying.

Did Mohammed advocate rape, pillage, conquest, murder, oathbreaking, wife abuse? What do the sources reveal about these matters? What does it reveal about people who can accept these sorts of activities as the highest model of human behavior?

But I forgot. These folks were trained in journalism schools. Stuff like truth and facts and reading up on the background are completely foreign to them.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Oh...yer gonna just love this.

[Biggirl]

Second it!

[Jeff Chandler]

— When writing about terrorism, remember to include white supremacist, radical anti-abortionists and other groups with a history of such activity.

[Biggirl]

With that, you will hear the crickets chirping.

[Biggirl]

....Going, going, GONE!!!!

[Biggirl]

....SOLD!!!!

[mamelukesabre]

Wouldn’t it be better to not call them “journalists”?

[Biggirl]

But propagandists?

[goodnesswins]

Yes, you can say that....but, probably not for long....

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Now we know where Sen. Allen (R-Va) got the word “maccaca”. It was really a reference to Mecca, or as the PC assholes spell it, “Makkah”.

Allen just stuttered on pronouncing it properly and came out with “maccaca”

A song title of “Makkak” just wouldn’t sound good as Gene Pitney’s “Mecca”. Capish?

[mamelukesabre]

scum that cannot be described accurately by a pious christian vocabulary.

[lonestar67]

Its also interesting how Arab imperialism is affirmed as an explicit textual reality. Non arab minorities who are being and have been erased are textually diminished by the constant preference for Arab descriptors in the style manual.