The New York Times, the paper which previously slammed the use of the words “radical Islam” and suggested that the Orlando killer’s motive was “unknowable,” on Wednesday condemned the rest of the world for “shrugging off” violence against Muslims in Middle Eastern countries. In a condescending tone, reporter Anne Barnard wrote of suicide bombing and blamed everything from Donald Trump to Brexit: “The global mood increasingly feels like one of natavism, of retreat into narrower identities of nation, politics or sect, with Britain voting to leave the European Union and many Americans supporting the nativist presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump.” This story actually appeared on the front page.
Insulting a wide swath of people, though presumably not sophisticated readers of the Times, Barnard continued, “This is not the first time that the West seems to have shrugged off massacres in predominantly Muslim countries. But the relative indifference after so many deaths caused by the very groups that have plagued the West is more than a matter of hurt feelings.”
Even when attempting to highlight “understandable reasons” why bombings and murders in Middle Eastern countries might get less coverage, the writer still managed to pin the reason on ignorance: “There are some understandable reasons for the differing reactions. People typically identify more closely with places and cultures that are familiar to them.”
With the New York Times, the hard question is what isn’t an example of bigotry. On June 28, the paper sneered that Brexit “has given license to xenophobia.” On June 17, reporter Damien Cave suggested that the term “radical Islam” “has taken on darker connotations.”
One reason that terror attacks in countries such as Iraq get less coverage is because once Barack Obama decided to quickly pull troops from Iraq (and George W. Bush was no longer a handy villain), many media outlets seemed to lose interest in that country.
