Back in 2010, when Florida minister Terry Jones (with a tiny flock of followers) drew national attention for threatening to burn a Koran, NBC’s David Gregory protested: "I don't see why this pastor Jones has any sort of forum or any platform that's worthy of discussion."
Five years later, liberal media outlets are still interested in promoting Jones. On the front page of Sunday’s Washington Post, reporter Anne Hull penned a mocking account of how Jones, the "infamous burner of Korans" was now running a french-fry stand in a mall. So why on Earth is that news? The only excuse was the Charlie Hebdo massacre. Hull began:
BRADENTON, Fla. — As the week began, there was Terry Jones, infamous burner of Korans and the No. 2 target on an al-Qaeda hit list, in plain sight at a Florida mall. Around the world, millions were mourning victims of the massacre in Paris who included another target on the hit list, the editor of Charlie Hebdo, but Jones was at the food court in DeSoto Square running his french fry stand.
The canned music, the display at Vitamin World — this was the landscape of America’s most brazen offender of Islam, working the counter at Fry Guys Gourmet Fries with a 9mm strapped to his ankle....
Business at Fry Guys picked up after the local paper reported that Jones was at the mall. Notoriety has its benefits, he has learned, especially compared with obscurity, which he experienced in late summer when he set fire to hundreds of Korans at a protest rally and was largely ignored...
In 2013, sheriff’s deputies in Polk County, Fla., pulled him over in a truck towing a smoker-style barbecue grill that was filled with hundreds of kerosene-soaked copies of the Koran. He was charged with the unlawful conveyance of fuel, but this time, instead of outrage and pandemonium, the reaction was more of a shrug.
Jones, by then, had relocated with his wife to a 12-acre spread outside of Bradenton. He had broken with Dove Outreach, leaving most of his remaining 15-member flock behind except for his associate pastor, Wayne Sapp, who over the years had soaked countless Koran in kerosene and now was at Fry Guys, squirting hot sauce on Buffalo wings.
It's hard to miss the "wacky preacher/fryer" overtones, matched by Jones fans coming by to buy fries ("freedom fries"?) and express thoughts about radical Islam. Burning a Koran is extremely outrageous to liberals, while late-term abortions are extremely understandable.
"Infamous" and "notorious" and "brazen" are loaded, emotional terms. They easily echo of editorializing. Guess who the Post does not find "infamous" or "notorious" or "brazen"? Try late-term abortionist Dr. Leroy Carhart, now eliminating viable babies in the Washington suburb of Germantown, Maryland. The Post hasn't put Carhart on the front page in almost four years -- and certainly not when 29-year-old teacher Jennifer Morbelli died inside his clinic in 2013 seeking an abortion for a 33-week-old baby diagnosed with a seizure disorder. Carhart left town after the abortion and before she died of amniotic fluid entering her bloodstream.
On July 25, 2011, the Post ran a sympathetic page-one profile on Carhart by reporter Lena Sun (who also reported on Morbelli's death in 2013 -- without mentioning the woman's name). The Post published a letter to the editor complaining "“I wish Post coverage of Carhart would focus less on humanizing a man who has made a career out of taking innocent lives and more on the humanity of the unborn children whose lives he is taking.”
PS: Hull wrapped up her Jones story by explaining the Terry Jones-as-fry-guy stint was short-lived:
That’s how the week began. It ended when the mall manager asked for a meeting. The disruption was too much, Robert Tackett said. It would be good if Jones would steer clear for a while and also remove his name from the lease. Jones agreed. He said he didn’t want any trouble, at least not this kind of trouble. He took off his plastic gloves and left Fry Guys, a wanted man, a possibly hunted man, in search of his next place to remain in plain sight.
