Public yawns while press freaks out over mosque story

[babylonsister]

Public yawns while press freaks out over mosque story
Eric Boehlert
August 24, 2010 10:17 am ET by Eric Boehlert


NBC’s Meet the Press was positively mosque obsessed on Sunday.

Host David Gregory discussed the controversy surrounding the planned Islamic center in downtown New York with a bevy of guests. He talked about the unfolding story with Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, former Republican congressmen Rick Lazio and Dick Armey, and Michigan's Democratic governor, Jennifer Granholm. Gregory discussed the controversy with conservative writers Jeffrey Goldberg and Paul Gigot and with the BBC’s Katty Kay.

Mosque-mania reigned on the talk show set this week as it did, to varying degrees, on all the recent Sunday shows.

snip//

But while the Beltway press continues to flood the zone with an onslaught of often dubious Islamic center coverage and commentary, a curious disconnect has emerged: Nobody cares about the story.

OK, “nobody” is an exaggeration. But there’s growing evidence that voters, news consumers, and even New Yorkers aren’t nearly as interested in the story as the press -- or conservative partisans --pretend we are. Plus, we have conclusive polling evidence that for a vast majority of Americans, the mosque story won’t have any effect on how they vote in November.

snip//

Is the Islamic center debate interesting, and does it carry with it some deeper political and cultural ramifications? Sure. And should it be covered? Absolutely. But a three-week running, front-page story? No way.

But shhh -- don’t tell reporters, producers, and pundits. They’re too busy co-sponsoring a right-wing production, burying us in an avalanche of mosque coverage and announcing that it’s the “the issue that is trumping all right now.”


more...

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201008240017

[CoffeeCat]

1. The mosque malarkey is manufactured nonsense...

I am totally convinced that the mosque controversy was created in a boardroom by Republican
operatives who want the 2010 midterm elections focused on the rumors and lies about Obama
being a Muslim.

If some reporter, who actually cares about the dying art of journalism, would do some digging around--I'm
sure you'd find Republican/neocon funding and fingerprints all over this thing.

Obama was forced to speak out--and of course he spoke out for protecting religious expression. The trap
had been set, and the rabid, right wing could now build upon the "Obama is a Muslim. He's not one of us
and he's anti-Christian" rumors that they tried to firmly embed into the public consciousness during the
2008 Presidential election.

Have any of you listened to right-wing radio lately? Last Sunday, Mark Levin said this, "Of course Obama
agrees that 'ground zero' should have a mosque. If you had walked into an elementary school in Indonesia
a few decades ago, and saw little Barack Hussein Obama sitting at his desk--you would have seen a little
Muslim boy. Barack Hussein Obama was raised a Muslim. It was ingrained in him from youth. So of course
we have a President who sides with Muslims."

They're ALL talking like this. It's all part of an orchestrated plan to whip up the base into a lie-based,
fear-frenzied lather so they'll vote. It's also a ploy to make this election about NOTHING but junk, so
the corrupt, incumbent, corporatist, career politicians maintain power and control. Don't look at what we're
doing! We need you focused on hating and fighting each other!

The general public might not care--but the powers that be sure as hell care! And they'll instruct the media
to continue covering this as they attempt to "Swiftboat" Obama and manufacture further division and hatred
in this country---which is one big giant decoy that helps them transform our democracy into a corporate-centric,
corrupt government.

Listen to right-wing radio. They're all singing from the same sick songbook. This is not coincidence. It is orchestrated.


tried to

[bullwinkle428]

2. The wingnut crusade against gays and Mexicans is turning into

an epic fail, so they're desperately flailing away in an effort to come up with just the right kind of boogeyman!

[waiting]

3. You said it!.

Saudi Prince AlWaleed, partner to Rupert Murdoch has financial ties to the Center, and Fox news reported it, but did not mention the name of the Saudi backer with possiby ties to terrorists. Hmm, I wonder why they didn' name AlWaleed? Maybe because he is part owner of Fox news, which implicates Fox news in terror financing if their stupid story is true. It is so pathetic that anyone buys into this bullshit at all, you know?

[rufus dog]

5. Without a doubt it was manufactured

The "Is he a Muslim" polls were taken before Obama made any comment. Phase one was to whip up the hysteria over the Mosque. If Obama hadn't responded they would have pushed the story through "why has he not responded, what does he have to hide" So it was actually better that he responded.

[stubtoe]

6. Too bad for them it's not working. Ha, Ha!

:nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity:

[EstimatedProphet]

8. Yes it was manufactured - google Pam Geller

Don't eat first though.

[Scurrilous]

10. LOL

:thumbsup:

[Hannah Bell]

13. +100. here's what people care about: 1) THE ECONOMY.

[LiberalAndProud]

4. As I suspected

The attempt to manufacture outrage is falling flat.

[Lorien]

7. Fires in Russia, floods in Pakistan, glaciers in greenland break apart. record

temperatures, and both the MSM and DU yawn. The biggest issues with the most dire consequences are being ignored by BOTH the corporate conservative press and the people. The environment and population may not be "sexy enough" for anyone, but ignoring both will lead to our undoing.(And YES, there are things that we can do about both; more education globally, equal rights for women, green energy and a reduction in meat consumption and the consumption of disposable items just for starters...)

[gratuitous]

9. This year's silly season non-troversy

Last year it was the manufactured "outrage" of the Tea Party, whose partisans suddenly discovered that we weren't running Clinton-era budget surpluses anymore, and that Something Must Be Done. While that issue continues to bedevil certain people who are at risk of being asked to pull their fair share of taxes for the first time in a decade, the reasons for the ginormous deficits instituted during the Bush administration are slowly emerging. And it doesn't look like good news for the free-loading overrich.

What to do? Well, it's kind of a stretch, since the permit process has been in place for years, and nobody's really had a problem with it, but why don't we gin up a non-troversy over the Muslim cultural center being planned for Manhattan a couple of blocks away from where the World Trade Center used to be? They're going to have a room for folks to pray in, and maybe we could appeal to low information people and inflame a little religious bigotry and good old-fashioned xenophobia and blow this up into a Big Issue?

Oh, well that's just nuts. Nobody would get all jazzed about that! It's just too far-fetched.

[valerief]

11. Yes, but they can use this story for pretend "voter discontent" when they steal votes in November. n

[pacalo]

12. I believe this is my favorite headline of the day. K&R.