Nomaan Merchant

AP Ignored Clear Indicators of Islamist Involvement in Texas Terror Attack (See Update)
By Tom Blumer | May 4, 2015 | 10:53 AM EDT

(See Update Below)

Since news broke of the terrorist attack in Garland, Texas Sunday evening and continuing until early this morning, the Associated Press, perhaps best nicknamed Allah's Press in instances such as these, was determined not to reveal the nature of those behind it. Two attackers were killed by police after opening fire and wounding a security officer, who, according to AP, "was treated and released from a local hospital."

The attack took place outside the city's Curtis Culwell Center, where a "First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest" was being held. Despite information available at the time of each filing, dispatches submitted by a pair of AP reporters at 1:20 a.m and 7:12 a.m. would only say that it "remained unclear" and "was not immediately clear," respectively, whether the attack wes related to the event. The wire service's Nomaan Merchant and Jamie Stengle also used their final paragraph in each item to engage in an implied blame-the-victim exercise.

AP Reporters: Motives of Ft. Hood Shooter Hasan a 'Difficult Question'
By Tom Blumer | August 18, 2013 | 11:02 PM EDT

Two reporters at the Associated Press covering the trial of the alleged (but really confessed) perpetrator of the Ft. Hood massacre still believe there is a "key but difficult question" which needs to be answered: "Why did Maj. Nidal Hasan attack his fellow soldiers in the worst mass shooting ever on a U.S. military base?"

Although the narrative of Nomaan Merchant and Michael Graczyk is couched in the context of what prosecutors will allow themselves to say in the trial itself — after all, the government claims that the murders represent an incident of workplace violence, and therefore not one involving terrorism — the pair's opening, which is what will get most readers' attention, still makes it appear that Hasan's motives remain vague (bolds are mine):