February 16th 2009
Muslim Beheading Not News, But Church Killing Is
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s I reported this morning, the NY Times is not covering the beheading of an upstate NY Muslim woman by her husband - even though it’s a state story, even though he owns a TV network designed to overturn “stereotypes” of Islam … and even though IT’S A BEHEADING FOR GOODNESS SAKE!
My lib friend Dan Chmielewski chides me for chiding the NYT:
Being from Upstate NY, I hope you’ll give me some creds here. But unless is a major story, like the plane crash, the New York Times is not going to cover a local crime story which is what this is. Wonder why you didn’t blog on this story …
… and he links to a Fox News story on Jim Adkisson,a Tennessee truck driver who pled guilty last Monday to killing two people and wounding six others at a church because he considered the liberal church “a den of un-American vipers.”
Not wanting to disappoint Dan (who, I’m sorry, gets no cred for being from upstate), I am blogging on that story, but not as he would want me to. I just re-checked the NYT, and it still has not posted a story on the upstate beheading murder, but lo and behold, it has run no fewer than three stories on Jim Adkisson’s case … way the heck out there in Tennessee:
- Hatred Said to Motivate Tenn. Shooter (July 28, 2008)
- Hate for Liberals and Gay People Drove Gunman, Police Say (July 29, 2008)
- National Briefing - South - Tennessee - Guilty Plea in Church (Feb. 10, 2009)
The July 28 article dedicated a full 28 paragraphs to the story, and the rehash on the 29th managed to come up with 16 more. Last week’s update on the guilty plea was just a paragraph. Here’s the lead of the the first story:
A man who the police say entered a Unitarian church in Knoxville during Sunday services and shot 8 people, killing two, was motivated by a hatred for liberals and homosexuals, Chief Sterling P. Owen IV of the Knoxville Police Department said Monday.
“It appears that what brought him to this horrible event was his lack of being able to obtain a job, his frustration over that, and his stated hatred for the liberal movement,” Chief Owen said of the suspect, Jim D. Adkisson, 58. “We have recovered a four-page letter in which he describes his feelings and the reason that he claims he committed these offenses.”
The Chmielewski theory that the NYT doesn’t bother with local crime stories elsewhere falls apart here, since two killed with a shotgun, even in a church, isn’t as newsworthy as one person killed by beheading, Muslim or not. No, what makes it newsworthy is that Adkisson had a “stated hatred for the liberal movement.” Had a Unitarian shot up a Baptist church because of a “stated hatred of the conservative movement” - newsworthy as that would be on its face - rest assured the NYT wouldn’t have covered it.
The conclusion is irrefutable:Â The NY Times will take any opportunity it can to discredit conservatives, particularly conservative Christians, and it will avoid any opportunity to paint Muslims in a negative light.
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Posted in Crimes and Courts, Media bias, NYT | 9 Comments » | 
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February 16th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Right you are, friend Laer, and the question is how does the NYT newsroom survive when everyone in it leads such a seemingly blinkered or fearful existence?
February 17th, 2009 at 10:01 am
Throughout upstate NY, men have been known to kill their wives. I covered a story once where a man shot his estranged wife, and then cut her photo out of every family picture before blowing his brains out in a bowling alley utility shed. The New York Times did not cover that murder suicide either.The case of the Tennessee Church shooter was one of conservative hatred. He wrote notes expressing a desire to kill all of the 100 people Bernie Goldberg identified as “ruining America” and he had all the Michal Savage, Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter books on display. He was hunting liberals in a church. He showed no remorse for his crime. From a straight news standpoint, a man who shoots up a church, kills two people and wounds several others, is a bigger story than a muslim man killing his wife. Its not a Christian/Muslim issue. Its a question of news judgement. And I hate to say it, but I think the New York Times got it right. Even Fox News covered the Tennessee shooter.Your post seems more about stoking fear about Muslims, than actually holding two people accountable for heinous crimes.
February 17th, 2009 at 10:44 am
That last commenter sounds like an apologist.
Obviously! However, the commenter didn’t address your point that if it had been the other way round it wouldn’t have been news either. The sad fact is that along with hatred toward conservatives:
Dhimmitude is alive and runnin’ rampant at the New York Times!
February 17th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Dan, you’re missing something here in your rush to be an apologist for Muslims.
“Honor” killings are a heinous part of Islam that we do not want Muslims to bring to our country. Even the largely apologist MSM have covered these killings with all the shock and horror they deserve - but when a spokesman for the “good Muslims” kills his wife in what might be just plain old cut-out-her-pictures rage, but may also be an “honor” killing, that very question makes it newsworthy. Is it one? Is it not? How many are occurring in the US? I want to know.
Were I a down-state NYT editor, I wouldn’t have run your story either; it’s run of the mill spousal murder. A beheading and possible “honor” killing by a spokesman for good Muslims is not run of the mill.
February 17th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Honor killing references are all over the blogs, but only in one local news story and via the Fox News link (sorry, I meant Faux News) and its a quote attributed to the NOW chapter president. http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/581540.html?imw=YThere is nothing to suggest the husband held radical Muslim beliefs here and this is more than likely a crime of passion as so many domestic violence cases are.My lawyer is Muslim; girls on my daughter’s soccer team and on my basketball team are Muslim too. You don’t want Muslims to bring honor killings to our country? As a liberal, I’d like to attend church without the risk of being shot by a Michael Savage listener.Â
February 17th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
It may have been a crime of passion, but it was acted out in a very Islamic way - they are the ONLY people going around beheading people in this day and age! See my earlier post, which I just updated, for the radical views espoused by Bridges TV. Of course, you’ll see those views as moderate …
You point to one incident in TN and find yourself at risk of being shot at church? Puh-leeze! Who’s the fearmonger now?
And no, I definitely don’t want to see honor killings to be brought to our country … but they are already here.
February 19th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
<B>As a liberal, I’d like to attend church without the risk of being shot by a Michael Savage listener. </b>
You have not yet answered why so few people died at that Church. Are you so biased and supportive of your mass murdering allies that you will not even address this minor issue?
February 19th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Please make a very big deal of this!It is not a crime of passion - because I very much doubt she was with another man! I doubt very much she was cheating on him.
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This was an honor killing. Why pretend it is not? As a woman I am VERY concerned about such equivocation.
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Normally I do not follow NOW but I was very glad that they came out against this and called a spade a spade. We do not want honor killings to catch on in the US. If Muslims want to live here. Fine - but on OUR terms. Freedom for the individual. LIFE, LIBERTY and the PURSUIT of HAPPINESS. That is excatly why she left her husband and she got her head lopped off!
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The poor woman who was killed, Aasiya Z. Hassan, used to wear a habib - but a few years ago she started to waer western clothes. I belive that gradually her mind was opened by freedom, and she wanted her own life to be free of this man. In Islam - that is not allowed. A man can divorce a woman but a woman cannot divorce a man.
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If we are going to be “fairminded” to Muslims - let us be fairminded FIRST to Muslim women, and only then to the men. The women are the ones who need your compassion. Be “knee jerk ” concerned for her rights, first. Please look at this story from her point of view.
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It was a Muslim woman who first blew the whistle on this - and she said we need to wake up. Come out of the haze. This was an honor killing. It is premeditated and it should be classifed as FIRST degree murder. He was charged with second degree murder, and that buys into this “crime of passion apology” or “domestic violence” delusion. So I am deeply concerend that already our US courst have drunk the Kool Aid on this.
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These crimes are meant to send a message to other Muslim women;Â and the killer is normally congratulated by his peers for doing what a man needs to do. There is an infinity of barbarism in this tradition of honor killing. It is sick.
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Thanks for listening, and thank you for those who have expressed outrage. This story is an out rage even if they did not run a TV station trying to teach us that Islam is a religion of peace.
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Yahoo news prints every major story for any old drunk who does something horrible to his wife or girlfriend, but they didn’t print anything about this until a few days after her funeral. They will normally print anything weird tht increases readership., but not this…So - I am convinced that people are much too concerned about offending the Muslims. Well, I say, let’s be concerned about those who make it a virtue to KILL the WOMEN. Let’s be firmly opposed to honor killing. Let’s get our priorities straight.
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February 19th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Dear Laer,
Thanks for a great site.
This was my first time finding your web site and I was glad to see how much you have posted about this issue of the media ignoring the honor Killian in New York until they got embarrassed about it…it did show up on Yahoo about a week after her death. I guess they sent the news by camel or pony express, that is understandable. It was a well written AP article bringing out the ironies…but alas, I feel, not the deep controversies.
MaryLouise