February 16th 2009
Muslim Beheading Not News, But Church Killing Is
A
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: 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.
