CNN Considers Political Correctness as a Factor in Ft. Hood Shootings
On Wednesday’s Situation Room, CNN’s Brian Todd actually considered that political correctness prevented earlier action against Ft. Hood shooter Nidal Hasan. Despite referencing “a senior investigative official who...said he has never heard any indication...that Hasan got any favorable treatment...before this shooting,” Todd also cited three others who were certain of the political correctness…
CBS’s Smith: Iraq and Afghanistan Wars to Blame for Ft. Hood Shootin
Interviewing Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki on Wednesday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Harry Smith cited a cause of the shooting at Ft. Hood: “...the Iraq war, the escalation in number of cases of post traumatic stress disorder...the more people go back to these fields, these theaters of war, either in Iraq or Afghanistan, it multiplies the incidence of these kinds of things occurring.”Smith…
PC News: Networks Downplay Terrorism, Muslim Connection in Ft. Hood At
Networks Decide Attack Wasn't Terror: 85 percent of the broadcast stories didn't mention the word "terror." ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news referenced terrorism connections to the Fort Hood attack just seven times in 48 reports. ABC, CBS, NBC Follow White House Line: Before Obama's Nov. 10 speech, 93 percent of the stories had ignored any terror connection. But after Obama hinted at what ABC…
FNC Notes Evan Thomas's Fear Hasan 'Will Get the Right Wing Going
On Monday's The O'Reilly Factor, during the "Weekdays with Bernie" segment, host Bill O'Reilly and Fox News Analyst Bernard Goldberg discussed media coverage of the Fort Hood massacre and the political correctness of some who were hesitant about discussing the role Nidal Hasan's extreme Muslim beliefs played in his decision to attack fellow troops. Whilte ABC News was given credit for covering…
Chris Matthews: Catholic Bishops 'Should Stay Off Capitol Hill
"The clergy should stay off Capitol Hill," MSNBC's Chris Matthews flatly declared on the November 10 "Hardball." Matthews fumed with disgust as Politico's Jonathan Allen told him that Catholic bishops lobbied Democrats to pass the pro-life Stupak Amendment to the Democratic health care reform bill last week. "I understand the [pro-life] argument" that the bishops brought to the table, Matthews…
Reuters, PBS Noted Faith's Role in Fall of Berlin Wall
I believe in miracles. They happen everyday. Like Reuters, of all news outlets, acknowledging the role that religious faith played in the dissident movements in East Germany leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.Sarah Pulliam Bailey picked up on that in a November 9 post at Get Religion yesterday:With Bon Jovi, Angela Merkel and Mikhail Gorbachev likely to steal the spotlight at the…
The War on Terror Made Him Do It
As is seemingly tradition, the media is once again playing that classic game known as ‘How Can We Blame Bush?' It's the party favorite where liberals take the biggest headline of the day, and immediately link Bush to the cause in one fell swoop, eliminating all facets of rationale. Now, syndicated columnist Gwynne Dyer has introduced his own version, something that is only surprising in the…
NYT Gives False Impression That Catholic Medal of Honor Winner Was Mus
Andrea Elliott’s front page article in the November 9 New York Times played up the thousands of Muslims in the U.S. military and how their “service...is more necessary and more complicated than ever before,” but gave the false impression that a Medal of Honor recipient named near the end of her piece was a Muslim himself, when he was actually Catholic. Elliott spent much of her article, “…
CBS’s Schieffer Blames Army for Ft. Hood Shooting
At the end of Sunday’s Face the Nation on CBS, host Bob Schieffer offered commentary on the cause of the mass shooting at Fort Hood: “That doctor [Major Nidal Hasan] should not have been at Fort Hood. I don’t care how hard-up the Army is for mental health professionals....sadly, this shows the Army still does not take protecting soldiers’ mental health as seriously as it does training them to…
CBS’s Schieffer on Ft. Hood Shooting: There Are ‘Christian Nuts
On Sunday’s Face the Nation on CBS, host Bob Schieffer tried to provide some perspective on the Fort Hood shooting, committed by an Islamic extremist: “It’s looking more and more like he was just, sort of, a religious nut. And you know Islam doesn’t have a majority – or the Christian religion has its full, you know, full helping of nuts too.”Schieffer made the comments while speaking to Senator…
WaPo's 'On Faith' Page Features Only Pro-'End-of-Life Care' Opinion
Each Saturday, the Washington Post prints an "On Faith" page in the Metro section. Part of the feature is a "From the panel" digest with a few excerpts from opinion leaders from various faiths and theological schools of thought. "On Faith" editors select a sampling of the panelists for the print digest but direct readers to the "On Faith" Web page for more opinions.Well today, the panel…
Olbermann Suggests FNC Discriminates Against Non-White or Muslim Emplo
On Friday’s Countdown show, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann suggested that Fox News is a racist organization that would hold race or religion against its employees in awarding promotions, as he used the show’s "Worst Person" segment to slam Fox and Friends co-hosts Brian Kilmeade, Gretchen Carlson, and Peter Johnson, for raising questions about whether Muslims serving in the military should be treated…
NBC Analyst Unsure Ft. Hood Shooting Was Terrorism
Appearing on the Dr. Nancy program on MSNBC Friday, NBC News terrorism analyst Roger Cressey warned against labeling the mass shooting at Ft. Hood as terrorism, despite the apparent radical views of the shooter: “We’ve heard some family references that he was being criticized for his Muslim faith, that’s all we know right now....It’s still premature to draw the terrorism conclusion.”Prior to…
WaPo Highlights Wacky Pagan Wedding, Labels It a Mix of Christian, Pag
"Couple mix Christian and pagan rituals" the teaser headline called out to me at the bottom of the page A1 of the November 2 edition of the Washington Post. Promising a look at a couple "celebrat[ing] the rites of marriage in a most unorthodox fashion," I turned to the Style section front page to read more.But what followed in Ellen McCarthy's "For heathens' sake" only confirmed when it comes to…