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.

More on the Burlington Coat Factory Non-Mosque

I was pretty short on material for today, so I decided to see what the good folks over at National Review were up to, and saw that Charles Krauthammer himself had weighed in on the Burlington Coat Factory Islamic Culture Center controversy with a piece called "Moral Myopia at Ground Zero".  I was not particularly impressed by this one, and I have been impressed by Krauthammer before.  Basically, he lumps the standard liberal argument into an effigy of straw to be sacrificed to the god of conservative caricature. 

Click to read more ...

We're American, We Don't Discriminate

Mazoon Mosque by jhongdizon.comThe top story on Drudge today is the approval by a community board of a planned $100 million mosque in the neighborhood of Ground Zero.  Understand, despite Drudge's usual hyperbole, that it isn't a mosque on the site of the World Trade center, just in the vicinity.  While I appreciate the emotions provoked by 9/11, this isn't controversial.  Of course a mosque should be allowed in that neighborhood.  While the 9/11 terrorists were Muslims, there is no reason or right to censor, discriminate or restrict Muslim groups in lower Manhattan, or anywhere else for that matter.  We are American, we have inalienable rights and punitive reactions borne of fear or anger are beneath our principles. 

Click to read more ...