Wannabe Pundit: Part II

The Stiletto Blog ^ | July 9, 2007 | The Stiletto

[theothercheek]

James Taranto’s "Best of the Web Today" (BOTWT) on Thursday, July 5^th, led off with an item about how the suspects in the failed London and Glasgow terror plots were depicted by The Associated Press ("[t]hey had diverse backgrounds, coming from countries around the globe, but all shared youth and worked in medicine"), which bent over backwards to sidestep the incontrovertible fact that the countries from which they immigrated to England are overwhelmingly Muslim.

Then to buttress his case that it is disingenuous – and dangerous - to pretend that the terrorists aren’t all Muslim, Taranto adds:

Why would that matter? Well, last month, Reuters quoted Jessica Stern, a Harvard expert on violent extremism, as saying, "The problems arising from Christian or Jewish extremism are not threatening to the world in the same way as Muslim extremism is."

Alert readers will recall that an article published by the New York Sun about Jessica Stern’s views on religious extremism was prominently featured in BOTWT on June 15^th. Stern is again mentioned in BOTWT on June 22^nd after she wrote to complain that the article in the Sun mischaracterized her remarks at a conference sponsored by security think tank EastWest Institute.

The audience for her speech included representatives of the State Department, Homeland Security, New York Police Department, as well as the U.N. missions of Israel, Iraq, Britain – and one wannabe pundit.

Taranto names that wannabe pundit as the author of the article in the Sun (in a less-than-full disclosure) in the first BOTWT piece about Stern and her views.

In his second BOTWT mention of Stern – defending the accuracy of the reporting upon which his first BOTWT piece relied (he did not attend the conference at which Stern spoke) – Taranto refers only to the Sun article and does not mention its author.

In this latest BOTWT mention of Stern – approvingly citing the same views he had denounced twice in the past couple of weeks – Taranto mentions neither the wannabe pundit nor the Sun article.

Click on the links above for additional detail about these first two BOTWT pieces to learn what passes for "disclosure"* of a conflict of interest, according to the "James Taranto Handbook Of Journalistic Ethics." And Thursday’s subtle, glancing mention of Stern is what passes for a "correction."

Only instead of correcting the record and undoing any harm to Stern’s reputation (not to mention, putting an end to the numerous threatening and vituperative e-mails she has received), this "correction" is cunningly executed so as to have the least adverse effect on the aspirations of his wannabe pundit - if not Taranto’s future success importuning his well-placed media friends to throw bylined assignments her way that he can then plug relentlessly in BOTWT.

This article published June 29^th in The Harvard Crimson tells BOTWT and OpinionJournal.com readers what Taranto will not, due to his disinclination to separate his professional and personal obligations:

[A]fter the June 14 conference for the EastWest Institute … what came was a flurry of controversy and name calling - most of it directed squarely at Stern.

"They wanted me to be introducing a study conducted by the EastWest Institute," Stern said, explaining how her ordeal began. The study was called "Violent Extremism and Radicalization," and Stern said that her speech was intended to discuss "intra-faith dialogue."

But the day after the speech, the headline of a New York Sun article declared: "Double Standard Seen Among Terror Critics."

"I am not a public figure," Stern said in an interview earlier in the week. "It didn’t occur to me that I needed to be on my toes for the way that a single sentence would be taken out of context." [Emphasis, The Stiletto’s.]

In the New York Sun story, Stern was quoted as saying that while Muslim clerics are being called on to condemn Muslim extremist violence, "Catholic priests are not stepping up to condemn those who kill abortion doctors … [and] rabbis are not condemning the violent settlers’ movement."

These comments, Stern said, were not part of her speech. "The reporter was extremely annoyed by the approach of the Institute … She wanted to be able to say something nasty about including Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the talk." [Emphasis, The Stiletto’s.]

Compare for yourself how the wannabe pundit reported Jessica Stern’s remarks before the EastWest Institute in the New York Sun with the Reuters article, which quotes extensively from the report commissioned by the think tank.It is reasonable to surmise that Stern drew heavily from this report, "Towards a Common Response: New Thinking Against Violent Extremism and Radicalization," in her 45-minute keynote address – which means Reuters likely provides a more accurate account of what she said than the Sun.

Plus the Reuters article is written by a credentialed journalist (who has worked in Afghanistan, the Gulf, Iraq, London, Milan and Madrid) and not by a wannabe pundit with an ax to grind who lacks the experience and résumé to understand the difference between writing "news" and "commentary."

* Disclosure: The Stiletto has had a beef with Taranto since he revealed himself to be an Armenian Genocide denier (third item). The Stiletto is always on the lookout for anyone who tries to minimize or deny the crime against humanity Ottoman Turks perpetrated, and lets ‘em have it. Taranto can take small comfort in knowing that he’s not The Stiletto’s only target.