Warmed Over Cold Warrior

I think the major media are responsible for a lot of our national image problems worldwide. I've ascribed this to underlying partisan bias and a need to justify group-think about the desirability of always being anti-war. A recent poll showing growing disapproval of Islam struck me as a natural - though unintended - by-product of the media's constant barrage of Islamist bombings and terrorist attacks in Iraq.

I say unintended because I believe the media goal is to arouse anti-war emotions leading to renunciation of the Bush Administration and It's War. The poll suggests an opposite reaction by Americans. But the the damage may well continue in the rest of the world - and that will be a problem for us all in the future.


The Powerline Blog has a interestingly take on the subject that illuminates how the media's inherent biases drive it into actively Rewriting Very Recent History: "This is basically a dog-bites-man story; the Washington Post reports on its poll showing that a growing number of Americans express disapproval of Islam, and a majority now say there are more violent extremists among Muslims than other religions. The Post could have attributed these findings to the fact that lots of people follow the news."
.....
"What I really wanted to comment on, though, was this sentence near the beginning of the Post's article:

The poll found that nearly half of Americans -- 46 percent -- have a negative view of Islam, seven percentage points higher than in the tense months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, when Muslims were often targeted for violence.

That's a false statement. In fact, the restraint that Americans showed in the months after September 11 in not blaming American Muslims for the attacks, let alone carrying out violent attacks on them, was remarkable. Nevertheless, what we're seeing here is history being rewritten. In a few years, it will be commonplace for books, newspapers, magazines and television broadcasts to record as a "fact" that after September 11, "Muslims were often targeted for violence." And I'm afraid that's what our children and grandchildren will be taught in school, regardless of the actual facts."

The following excerpt covers a readers exchanges with the Washington Post reporter. It is fascinating to read; the reporter seems to be totally unaware of how badly he is rewriting history, much less of the impact of his ignorance. The fact that it was published shows considerable editorial irresponsibility as well. So, back to PowerLine :

"It's an interesting window into the thinking of at least one Post reporter:

I emailed the authors with this:

You have your facts wrong. Muslims were not "often targeted for violence" after September 11. In fact, there were remarkably few incidents. By any reasonable definition of "often" you are wrong.

Darryl Fears responded back with this:

Mr. Hanlon, I write about immigration and race, and I covered the incidents. There were thousands of incidents, compiled by both the FBI and by Arab agencies that were deluged with phone calls from people too afraid to call police. Even Indian Sikhs who are not Muslim were beaten bloody. The president saw this and gave a speech and urged calm, which helped. Those are the facts, and they're not very hard to find. - Darryl Fears

And I responded to him with this. He did not reply:

The FBI compiled thousands of incidents? Or the FBI compiled a handful and Arab agencies were deluged with phone calls? They are significantly different. You're making up history, as you want it to be, not as it happened.



The FBI certainly didn't compile a list of thousands of incidents of violence; neither did the Justice Department. The number of incidents that actually involved violence was tiny, in a nation of almost 300 million people. I find it noteworthy, too, that according to the FBI, "anti-Islamic incidents" (both violent and non-violent) jumped in 2001 to "a total of 481 episodes, second only to anti-Jewish incidents which totaled 1043." No doubt the Post will soon be reporting that Jews in America are "often targeted for violence."

Or, more simply, the Post will be able to report that Muslims hold an unfavorable view of the US, making it easier for the Islamists to recruit terrorist candidates.