GMA adds fuel to the mosque fire
Good Morning America lied to America this morning. No surprise to some of you, I'm sure.
Their report just after 7:00 am this morning on the Murfreesboro mosque construction site shamefully contained misinformation that will only fuel more dangerous ill will. While the talking head stated the fire was determined by officials to be arson the video showed a picture of a firefighter in full gear among building rubble and showed a white building block building with smoke stains around a window with the word "Mosque" on the building. This is a severe misrepresentation of the actual event which occurred in a cleared lot with no buildings at all let alone rubble. I expect showing a burned dump truck isn't as exciting as they needed so someone decided to enhance the story. The problem is those visuals were a lie that will be remembered. Unfortunately, I'm unable to find the video at the ABC News or GMA site or I'd embed it here for you all to view and judge for yourselves.
It's one thing for some idiot to torch a dump truck and another for what used to be a trusted news source to add fuel to a serious situation that locals are trying to work out in a civilized manner.
It's reporting like this that explains why I hardly turn on the networks anymore.
21 comments:
Is that like Fox News showing guys with black bandanas and AK47s everytime they talk abut Muslims? Unlike the GMA mistake, that happens almost daily at Fox News.
You might want to see what Constitutional conservatives say about this recent Mosque issue.
Someone is fanning the flames of hate and get a clue... it's not GMA.
I don't watch Fox News so I cannot comment on their coverage but if they talk about an incident and show graphics and footage that aren't actually about the event they'd be as wrong.
Our mothers had a phrase that seems appropriate: So, if Johnny jumps off the cliff are you going to follow him? Just cause Johnny did it doesn't make it right or smart. So just 'cause Fox does it (if they do) doesn't give GMA the freedom to do something just as wrong or stupid.
And I actually heard this portion of Phil Valentine's program driving home one afternoon. Build your mosque...just don't make it a haven for unconstitutional Sharia law or terrorism.
Kay,
Is that like "Build your Synagogue, but don't make it a haven for unconstitutional talmudic law or terrorism."
or
"Build your protestant church but dont make it a haven for unconstitutional Christian Monarchical law or blowing up federal buildings"
or
"Build your Catholic church but dont make it a haven for unconstitutional Papal rule or anti-English terrorism"
or
"Build your Hindu temple but dont make it a haven for unconstitutional caste systems or anti-muslim terrorism"
Why hasnt Phil Valentine mentioned these things?
You dont watch Fox News?
http://kaybrooks.blogspot.com/2010/07/she-was-robbedand-so-were-we.html
http://kaybrooks.blogspot.com/2010/07/cece-heil-on-fox-friends-this-am.html
Don't lie, it's unbecoming.
Allow me to rephrase that. I don't have cable, never have, and so do not have Fox News regularly available to me. I have, occasionally, had various Fox segments pointed out to me and viewed them. I have occasionally commented on the contents of those reports.
If ABC/GMA was a quick to admit their error, I'd be satisfied.
McVeigh was an atheist...not a Christian.
You'll have to ask Phil Valentine why he hasn't mentioned the others.
Examples of Christian terrorists in the US include extremist groups such as the "Army of God" which executed attacks against abortion clinics and doctors across the United States. A number of terrorist attacks, including the Centennial Olympic Park bombing during the 1996 Summer Olympics by Eric Robert Rudolph - tied to the Christian Identity and Christian Patriot movements, including the "Lambs of Christ." A group called Concerned Christians were deported from Israel on suspicion of planning to attack holy sites in Jerusalem at the end of 1999, believing that their deaths would "lead them to heaven." The motive for anti-abortionist Scott Roeder murdering Wichita doctor George Tiller on May 31, 2009 was religious.
These are but a few examples, but with the recent rash of Islamophobic and anti-immigrant hate rhetoric from right wing media, and with rise of the white Christian tea party movement, these Christian terrorist attacks will continue to increase.
Can I point out that no one has been arrested or claimed responsibility for the torching of the dump truck...let alone any 'Islamophobe'?
Plenty of construction equipment has been torched before and it's usually a teen prank or the the Earth Liberation Front is usually to blame.
I'm surprised y'all haven't run out of broad Christianophobe brushes. I don't agree that the TEA Party movement is white. A quick Google and YouTube search, and my own experience here in Nashville, prove that while it's mostly white there are people of color involved, some very prominently. Some of you folks want to make it about race but it's not...it's about freedom.
Tea party = freedom from? The Federal gov't that gives TN more than we pay in taxes? Freedom from Civil rights perhaps? Freedom from separation of Church and State? Anyway, yes the Murfreesboro tea party march against the Mosque had about 400 people, 398 were white so yes, a 99.5% white movement and guess who the featured speakers at the courthouse were? The only two black people involved. Easy to see why.
Yes, the right-wing hate machine is getting traction. The Princeton survey found an astounding 52% of Republicans believe Obama, "sympathizes with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists who want to impose Islamic law around the world."
Look at rhe cover of the 9/6 Newsweek.
The title article explains how such evil misconceptions have become rooted:
"The blame for this extends from Fox News and the Republican leadership, to the peculiar psychology of resentment in public opinion, to the ham-handed political response of the Obama White House. Whatever the cause, if smash-mouth tactics are validated by huge GOP gains in the midterm elections, then Big Lie politics may be with us for good."
Personally, it says a lot about those who consume the big lies and who they vote for.
In true wingnut fashion, Fox News blames Obama himself for the misconceptions and lies. How appropriate and predictable.
Ummm....doesn't your quote from Newsweek indicate that they also think Obama is to blame "The blame for this extends from... to the ham-handed political response of the Obama White House."
So if Fox blaming Obama is 'wingnut' shouldn't that also apply to Newsweek which also blames Obama?
If he wants to correct his ham-handedness he could state, for starters, that clearly the the Ground Zero mosque is insensitive and unnecessary and ask them to find another location, that the democratic nation of Israel has the right exist and to have control of its land and capital in toto, that there are parts of Sharia law that are at odds with our Constitution and where it conflicts it will not be tolerated. Just a couple of short, direct statements could clear all this misconception up.
For your educaion, here are the six principles of Sharia:
1. The right to the protection of life.
2. The right to the protection of family.
3. The right to the protection of education.
4. The right to the protection of religion.
5. The right to the protection of property (access to resources).
6. The right to the protection of human dignity.
Do you see stoning women in there? The term "shariah law" is a misnomer, because shariah is not law, but a set of principles. To Muslims, it's the general term for "the way of God."
Books of interpretive writings (called fiqh) about how to act in accordance with the way of God are differing opinions, contradictory rules and scholarly debates. For example, stoning for adultery is a punishment that appears in fiqh, as well as early Judaic law. But it does NOT appear in the Qur'an. Assuming all Muslims follow medieval Islamic rules today is like assuming that all Catholics follow 9th century canon law. Islam, like Christianity, has changed many times over the centuries, and it continues to change. Focusing only on the nutcases who advocate a return to medieval times is ignoring the vast majority of modern Muslims, despite what your ignorant right-wing hate mongers have told you.
Anyway, to believe that the US is threatened by a 1% US Muslim population is more than bigoted, it's downright cowardly and fearful.
Amazing how the hate has escalated since the guy you voted for twice said:
"The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends. It is not our many Arab friends ... The terrorists practice a fringe form of Islamic extremism that has been rejected by Muslim scholars and the vast majority of Muslim clerics; a fringe movement that perverts the peaceful teachings of Islam." - G.W. Bush 9/20/01
He actually had it right.
Maybe I missed it, but are you agreeing that defining and practicing Sharia in any way that violates the Constitution should not be tolerated and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of our laws?
The devil, as they say, is in the details of how you define each of those principles and how you protect them.
Regardless, this post was about a report at ABC that unnecessarily and dangerously inflamed an already delicate situation. Neither you nor Ellen has agreed that it was irresponsible of them.
Question: How is a 1% minority religion going to impose theocratic rule over 300 million Americans? If that's not a paranoid delusion, I don't know what is. Since this fear is not based in reality, it's not hard to see what it really is.
I think we have far more to fear in terms of a theocracy from the evermore emboldened majority that does pretty well in the area of divisiveness and subjugating women.
And yes, I condemn GMA if they did what you said.
And...the other question...if that defining and practicing of Sharia violates the Constitution and our laws should it be prosecuted to the fullest extent of our laws?
Yeah, Jimmy Carter and his group of elders. Talk about majoring in the minors! How many lives is this band-aid going to save? NONE. All symbolism and absolutely no substance. It's easy to take on the Baptists. It's a lot like putting on his cardigan and hunkering down in the White House during the 444 days Iran held our citizens.
Well well, World Outreach... the same church that was prominent in the march against the Islamic Center is the same church sect that is burning the Quran on 9/11.
That's very intelligent and productive Christian tea party behavior.
I find all this sudden mosque attention a little suspicious (on many fronts) - even staged. A conflict generated, much like the "racist" tea party claims by the usual race hustlers whose sole existence depends on division and racial disharmony.
Should the federal government be making an effort to "reach out" to any religion in particular?
I'm with ya, Eric. Still waiting for the full story to come out.
Colin Powell mentioned the Murfreesboro anti- Islamic violence on The View this week. He also mentioned President GW Bush's visit to the Washington DC Islamic Center in the wake of 9/11, to warn againt a backlash against American Muslims.
The Islamic Center of Washington DC was inagurated by Republican President Dwight D Eisenhower in 1957. On that day, Eisenhower said:
"And I should like to assure you, my Islamic friends, that under the American Constitution, under American tradition, and in American hearts, this Center, this place of worship, is just as welcome as could be a similar edifice of any other religion. Indeed, America would fight with her whole strength for your right to have here your own church and worship according to your own conscience. This concept is indeed a part of America, and without that concept we would be something else than what we are. "
"Something else"... that's what America seems to be becoming.
Why don't you save time, William and and start your own blog? You and Ellen could co-author. That way you wouldn't have to deal with the right side of the aisle at all.
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