Posted on 04/08/2006 10:02:16 PM PDT by LdSentinal
Here's what now passes for "news gathering" at the NBC television network in the brave, and still relatively new, world of 24/7 electronic news broadcasting: Last weekend, a crew working for the NBC News magazine program "Dateline" showed up in Martinsville, Va. for the NASCAR stock car races. With the crew were some "Muslim-looking men" - whatever that means - as part of a "Dateline" effort to show how people in this country would react to "Muslims" in their midst.
In a recent statement, NBC News said it was pursuing the issue because it was "intrigued by the results of a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll and other articles regarding increasing anti-Muslim sentiments in the United States."
So, what happened at Martinsville Speedway?
Nothing. To the everlasting credit of the NASCAR Nation, not a curse word was uttered, not a punch was thrown, not a thing happened.
If you're a born-and-bred Southerner like me, you know in your deep-fried bones that's not the result the "Dateline" crew was hoping it would get.
No, you can bet the "Dateline" crew was expecting one thing, and one thing only: They were convinced they'd come away from Martinsville Speedway with video of their "Muslim" marks being beaten by a bunch of tire-iron-wielding, gap-toothed, trailer-dwelling, drunken mouth-breathers in wife-beater T-shirts.
Despite all its high-minded posturing that it simply was intrigued by a poll, NBC News was doing nothing more in Martinsville than looking for a video clip that would confirm its own prejudices. The "Dateline" crew was looking not to report the news, but to create some news.
Elsewhere in its statement on the "Dateline" story, NBC said, "It's very early in our newsgathering process, but be assured we will be visiting a number of locations across the country and are confident that our reporting team is pursuing this story in a fair manner."
Fair enough, as far as "pursuing this story" goes.
But, of course, the proof of NBC's "fair manner" won't be made manifest in its pursuit of the story.
The proof of the network's stated commitment to fairness will be in its editing and presentation of the "Dateline" piece, if it ever makes it to the airwaves.
It will be interesting to see if the "Dateline" segment producers are willing to air footage of their "Muslims" in Martinsville. It's not likely to be particularly exciting. According to Ramsey Poston, managing director of corporate communications for NASCAR, as quoted in the online version of the Memphis Commercial-Appeal, the crew and the men "walked around, and no one bothered them."
It also will be interesting to see where else the "Dateline" crew decides to take its "Muslim" men. Will they, for instance, be willing to take the men to a polo match, a Mercedes-Benz dealership or any other supposedly "upscale" location, and air, unedited, the footage they gather?
Will they be willing to take the men, unannounced, into their own neighborhoods, and air that footage unedited?
It's too bad the "Dateline" crew didn't take a little time to poke around in the NBC newsroom before embarking on this story. It wouldn't have taken them long to realize the wrongheadedness of their apparently ill-hidden preconceptions regarding NASCAR fans.
As it happens, Brian Williams, anchor of the network's nightly newscast - and hardly a part of the demographic the "Dateline" crew clearly expected to find in Martinsville - is a deep-dyed NASCAR fan.
Here's Williams responding to a question during an interview by NBC's Lester Holt about his affinity for NASCAR: "I will watch anything go around in a circle. ... I love the car racing. ... I just have always loved it. I love the smell of it, the sound of it."
So do a lot of people.
And here's a news flash: That doesn't automatically make them simple-minded bigots.
Back in 1993, there was an episode where they showed footage of a GM truck bursting into flame in a crash. The fire appears to have been "helped" by an incindiary device that was planted in the truck to ensure that things burst into flames.
This was not the first time a network news show faked footage to make a story
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I hope you are serious and not just making noise.
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I've often thought having a group of people in heavy arab-like drapes follow her majesty around would expose her hypocrisy. You KNOW her security would "racially profile" us. Having it on tape would be a coup.
Random screams of allah'uh akbar from the crowd would make her dump her lunch.
I can only partially agree with you there. I don't think that we should behead them as they would do to us but why make them comfortable here when their ultimate goal is well known? Now, if they can stop their brethren from going into crowded places and blowing up Innocent people, I might begin to feel differently. In the mean time, how long do you think it might be before someone does show up at a NASCAR event with a bomb? Odds are it will not be the Amish or a Jew that tries it.
Nothing fair about the mainstream newsentertainment media.
They have several agendas and use their power to further the agenda, not to present events as they happen.
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