Quran Burning Story: This Is How The Media Embarrass Themselves

[cal04]

Jason Linkins
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/10/this-is-how-the-media-wor_n_712229.html

(snip)
The story of how one lone idiot, pimping an 18th-century brand of community terrorism, held the media hostage and forced some of this nation's most powerful people to their knees to fitfully beg an end to his wackdoodlery is an extraordinary one. It's a modern media retelling of Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying", in which a gang of Islamaphobes, cast in the role of Addie Bundren, bamboozle the media into carrying their coffin full of malevolence on a journey of pure debasement. Let's begin at the beginning.

(snip)
Let's remember that all of this paralysis was caused by 50 people who wanted to burn a book that's available for free, on the Internet!

There were many, many moments where someone could have simply said, "No, we should really not be doing this. These Islamophobes are objectively wrong, objectively stupid, objectively contradictory, objectively harmful, and by God, as someone with a functioning brain and a devotion to the pursuit of reason above all else, I am going to stand here and say no to all of this." But as it turns out, it wasn't until yesterday afternoon that someone finally had the guts to say maybe we cannot really believe a word this man is saying.

Well, they should have thought of that before they decided to point a bunch of teevee cameras at him, I guess.

[azurnoir]

1. k&r

the whole damn story has gotten way too much attention, which is exactly what these bigots wanted

[JuniperLea]

2. Per John Fugelsang who filled in for Steph Miller this week...

And his guest... dammit... it was this morning... a lot of water has passed under my bridge today and I'm forgetting the guest. Anyway...

This is a very old story in the ME. There have been many protests all summer long. We are only just now learning about this.

Yes it's disgusting that one idiot can cause such a ruckus, and believe me, I was one of the first to scream bloody murder because this asshat is getting too much media attention. However, in light of the problems he's caused in the ME all summer long, this story is an actual story and it deserves attention, IMHO.

Secondly... he has a right to free speech, and he can burn whatever he chooses. But that right is ours as well. We have every right to speak out against actions we feel are hateful, dangerous, or wrong on any level. I say we make a big fuss about this creep. Maybe he'll be kicked out of this church too.