Sudden Jihad Syndrome: "Nothing To See Here Folks, Move On"

This column is back from mid-February, and it's about the old-ish news of the Utah mall shootings, but it's well worth reading.

Basically, the media is unwilling to even mention that someone guilty what seems to be a terroristic mass-murder is Muslim. And we can't just blame the media -- law enforcement, from the local cops all the way up the FBI's brass, simply dismisses Islamism as a motive no matter how suggestive the circumstances.

Even shouting "Allahu Akbar" as you drive your jeep into a crowd of college students isn't enough to get anyone to whisper the forbidden words "Islamic terrorism."

Here's the thing: the media claims it's the watchdog of the government, the "Fourth Estate" of government, there to patrol our government for lies and coverups and just plain old horseshit.

That's what they claim. But when the government is spouting absurdist, nearly Pythonesque nonsense as regards this particular issue, suddenly they're not really terribly interested in challenging the government at all. Indeed, they're all too eager to push the government's line as hard as they possibly can. (That is, when they're not embargoing the story entirely.)

The media's got a bad case of islamophobiaphobia. They're so afraid of islamophobia they can hardly rouse themselves to type the word "Islam" at all. Apparently they fear that if they so much as suggest that a Islamist may have been motivated by Islamism to commit murders, Americans will go on a Muslim-killin' rampage.

To which I always have to ask: If the media fears this sort of response from Americans, why they thell are they so willing to push stories that will clearly inflame a quite inflammable group -- Islamists themselves? Shouldn't the same logic -- soft-sell stories that may tend to "excite" people in violent ways -- apply to both sorts of stories? Indeed, given the wild disparity in the numbers of Islamist-motivated killings versus "Islamphobia" motivated killings, shouldn't their censorship-for-the-sake-of-public-safety dictate they be even more cautious with bullshit stories like the Koran in the Toilet?

The article, by the way, is by the Late Great Planet Earth guy. So what? A good point is still a good point even if it's a mutated sentient cauliflower making it.

posted by Ace at 03:25 PM

| Access Comments