Minipost: Media Hijacking

The Daily Beast's John Avlon has this to say about Pastor Terry Jones's promise of mass Koran burnings to celebrate the ninth anniversary of 9-11:

Just because you're crazy doesn't mean you're stupid. The crusty Rev. Jones was just following an established formula for manipulating the Pavlovian press in the Internet age perfectly. It goes like this: Take a pre-existing narrative like the mosque debate ("Are Americans Islamophobic?"), add a fresh news peg, make it more extreme—and, presto, you're guaranteed wall-to-wall coverage that the best PR agency couldn't buy. Jones gamed the system so well that his decision Thursday afternoon not to burn the Korans became breaking news—and usually not doing something is the opposite of news. Then, by evening, he was equivocating yet again, generating still more headlines.

We can try to justify the coverage by dressing up the "Burn a Quran" stunt as a constitutional debate between freedom of speech and freedom of religion, but vibrant debates require two sides and even the most intrepid cable news booker couldn't have found too many willing to endorse the Rev. Jones' position. There wasn't any high-minded explanation; it was just a base fascination that draws our attention for the same reason that people used to view public hangings or watch the Anna Nicole Smith show.