The Backlash That Wasn't

WSJ ^ | 3 sep 02 | Thomas Bray

[white trash redneck]

When a federal grand jury in Detroit last week announced the indictment of four Middle Eastern men on terrorist conspiracy charges, the story naturally received page one coverage. But, in what has become almost a ritual, the local press quickly followed up with articles averring that not all Muslims are terrorists, that Arab-Americans are good patriots like everybody else and that Islam is a compassionate, not a violent, faith.

[white trash redneck]

Though I'm glad the press is protected by the first amendment, why does the mainstream press have to be a fifth column?

[2banana]

miltia movement = whitey with guns. Do you really think the press cares about these people?

[Dialup Llama]

The anti-muslim backlash which CAIR laments, and John Ascroft and James Earl Jones warn about doesn't and never did exist.

I really hate those Ad Council PSAs where Darth Vader (James Earl Jones) is telling me not to beat up the arab guy at the convenience store when in fact he is in no such danger.

[sweetliberty]

I wouldn't hold my breath for it. Allah seems to have struck all these good, peaceful people mute.

[Kermit]

Actually, once you understand the media template, it is easy to explain why they obsessed on the militia and ignored (and ignore) Muslim Arab terrorism. For the media, they put everything into the format "will it help the right".

So, the media identifies the militia movement as the right, then obsessively focuses on bashing them. They ignore the possibility that Muslim Arab (Iraqi) terrorism was behind the OKC bombing. McVeigh had nothing to do with the militia movement.

Why ignore Muslim Arab terrorism? Well, if you take that seriously, it leads to questions about the wonderfulness of multi-culturalism. It leads to questions about the wonderfulness of all this third-world immigration, especially Arab Muslim. It leads to questions about the loyalty to this country of Arab Muslims.

All of these questions are questions about the wonderfulness of the the liberal/left shiboleths. The media will NOT consider the possibility that all cultures are NOT equal. They will not consider the possibility that it IS important to control the borders and control immigration. The liberal/left view of mindless equality can not be put to the question.

So, if you're a mindless egalitarian in the media (and aren't they all), you build up a domestic, right-wing, white guy threat and ignore the murderers of 3,000 Americans (to start). They'll murder more, as many as they can, if they can. Ignore that.

It's easy to understand, once you have the key.

[Erasmus]

It seems that all the major papers have only four columnists and are looking to staff up by one.

[FreeTally]

The right wing, as well all know, is paranoid. All others are potential victims of plots to take away their civil rights.

Sums up the hypocritical standard pretty well. Any "white guy" that complains about the government is a wacko, but Muslims have a "real" fear.

[lds23]

And way off the list of things that can be discussed are the "success" of Muslim recruiting among blacks in prisons.

[j271]

Any chance of the New York Times or Washington Post breaking stories on the terrorist connections of domestic US mosques or Muslim advocacy groups?

With the Oklahoma City bombing, the media did everything it could to drag as many on the right as possible into it, no matter how indirectly they were related.

Now, they're doing the opposite. No matter how direct the connection is, they're either not investigating it or else burying it outright.

And yet they astonishingly still cling to the trappings of objectivity.

[Redbob]

"Allah seems to have struck all these good, peaceful people mute."

Not at all!
All the good, peaceful Arabs are speaking out loudly!
What, you can't hear them?
Hmmmm...

[KC_Conspirator]

This reminds of an article by Frank Rich calling for the arrest of "terrorist" pro-lifers while totally exonerating the real threat - muslim terrorists who killed 3,000 just down the street from him. Shame on him and his shameful paper.

[Alouette]

And it went on to quote the publisher of an Arab-American paper in Dearborn as hyperventilating that "The police can come and arrest me for being a terrorist--and people would not blink an eye. . . . My civil rights? Gone. Finished."

Hey, buddy! Get a clue. If you don't like it here,

YOU'RE FREE TO GO BACK WHERE YOU CAME FROM!!