Coverage of Koran Case Stirs Questions on Media Role

[mike r]

Source: New York Times

A renegade pastor and his tiny flock set fire to a Koran on a street corner, and made sure to capture it on film. And they were ignored. That stunt took place in 2008, involving members of the Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, Kan., an almost universally condemned group of fundamentalists who also protest at military funerals.

But plans for a similar stunt by another fringe pastor, Terry Jones, have garnered worldwide news media attention this summer, attention that peaked Thursday when he announced he was canceling — and later, that he had only “suspended” — what he had dubbed International Burn a Koran Day. It had been scheduled for Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Unlike the Koran-burning by Westboro Baptist, Mr. Jones’s planned event in Gainesville, Fla., coincided with the controversy over the proposed building of a Muslim community center in Lower Manhattan near ground zero and a simmering summerlong debate about the freedoms of speech and religion. Mr. Jones was able to put himself at the center of those issues by using the news lull of summer and the demands of a 24-hour news cycle to promote his anti-Islam cause. He said he consented to more than 150 interview requests in July and August, each time expressing his extremist views about Islam and Sharia law.

By the middle of this week, the planned Koran burning was the lead story on some network newscasts, and topic No. 1 on cable news — an extraordinary amount of attention for a marginal figure with a very small following. On Thursday, President Obama condemned Mr. Jones’s plan, and his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said that there were “more people at his press conferences than listen to his sermons,” in a bit of media criticism.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/us/10media.html

[PSPS]

1. The corporate media is now nothing more than a 24-hour Howard Beale Show without the populism.

[droidamus2]

2. It amazes me

I was watching CNN make a big deal about this idiot and then they mentioned that there are only about 30 people in his church. Why the hell are they even covering this publicity seeking (and might I guess at some point money seeking) fool? I really feel that the news departments, especially cable news, have gone from 'reporting' the news to creating their own scandals and 'breaking news' stories or in other words gone from reporting the news to making the news.

[lunasun]

3. well on Weds. this was in the times....

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/us/09secrets.html


torture and crimes Ok'd but everybody is watching some ol geezer with a Bic lighter play chicken with a holy book

[SkyDaddy7]

4. "planned Koran burning was the lead story on "some" network newscasts"

Try ever news cast that comes on any TV or Radio! The press created this crap just like they created the building of the Mosque at ground Zero that is not a Mosque & is not at Ground Zero...Beofre the Murdoch empire decided they needed some more chaos before the November to keep the press from asking too many questions about the GOP plans for creating jobs & reducing the deficit!

Then the MSM chased the story like a dog after raw meat because they have to try & share in the ratings FOX "News" has! WHATEVER!

[pampango]

5. Islamic fundamentalists knew of Jones' plan more than a month ago.

"But, frankly, the first time that I became aware that there was a pastor that planned to burn Korans in Florida was on a jihadi Web site more than a month ago, when there was sort of a short news article from a British newspaper that had mentioned this, and it was being discussed by the jihadis.

And already then, more than a month ago, there were posters on these Web sites saying, you know what? We need do something. This is a big deal. This changes the way I look at things.

And, so, I think that it's very important for our political leaders and our civic leaders to come out, and not only denounce efforts like this one in Florida, but really raise the standard of debate. We don't talk about the issues of sort of Muslims in America and the issues of terrorism -- the larger issues of terrorism in a very sophisticated way. Oftentimes, these are politicized. The rhetoric that is used is really, really rancorous. And we need to do a better job.

Those political leaders needs -- need to raise the standard, so that when somebody like this pastor in Florida does something crazy, it stands out even more."

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/religion/july-dec10/quran2_09-09.html

While it's good that we learned of something that Islamic right-wing fundamentalists already knew about and intended to exploit, the overkill coverage given to this Christian right-wing fundamentalist with a tiny following was the media's herd mentality at its worst.

[customerserviceguy]

6. The news media was actually hoping for some negative reaction

from those who would be moved to violence at the burning of a pile of books. They were willing to give the nutball FL preacher enough of the attention that he was whoring in order to gin up a story.

Burning or no burning, they've got one. The story is the difference between the anti-Park51 forces who simply say, "Please don't build that here," and anti-Koran burning forces who say, "We'll kill some Americans if this happens."