The media is in a unique position. It has the power to catapult even the most backwoods yahoo into international notoriety. Fortunately for all the three-letter television news outlets, ignorance is America’s primary export.
Enter recent pop-media darling boy Terry Jones. For those living under a rock on the moon, Jones is the kind of supposedly Christian scum that believes insulting non-Christians will somehow bring them into the fold.
Jones planned to burn hundreds of Qurans on the anniversary of Sept. 11 because he was opposed to the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” proposed by Imam Abdul Rauf.
Moreover, the event was slated just after the end of Ramadan —  a religious holiday which celebrates Allah’s revelation of the Quran to Muhamad.
Of course, the Rush Limbaughs and the Rick Sanchezes of the world, as well as a lot of the other trolls that slouch in front of microphones, cameras and keyboards, were drooling over Jones’ brazen insensitivity. This skeez-bag played the media like a fundamentalist fiddle. All the big TV networks and a majority of news radio enterprises smelled ratings and gave Jones all the exposure he could have wanted.
This “shepherd’s” flock halved after he announced the Quran burning. At this point he herds around 20 sheep, according to a piece recently aired
on C-SPAN.
A responsible media outlet would give this guy a brief and call it a day.
To cover the story for weeks on end was not only a ploy for viewers, it was an exercise in lazy reporting. They clearly put ratings over news value.
By giving this story such expansive coverage, popular media encouraged a discourse that generally misinterprets and misunderstands Islam.
The question of whether Jones’ project was justifiable is a non-issue. It is obvious he has the right to burn the books, and it is equally obvious that his intention to do so was
completely tasteless.
Mainstream media, however, was as tactless as Jones.
The huckster’s plans demonstrate the kind of ignorance that engenders anti-American sentiments around the globe.
In elevating the story to international status, television and radio outlets exposed the international community to yet another radical who professes to encompass he general
American sentiment.
Muslims in Afghanistan protested the Quran burning, and General Petraeus even came out and spoke about how detrimental Jones’ project was for troops in Muslim countries and America’s image overall.
Jones is no more qualified to speak for the nation — regardless of how strongly Christianity has influenced our culture — than Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is
for Islam.
Jones canceled the burning, but his exploits continue to be the thing of media mogul’s
wet dreams.
Mainstream media: Jones already halted your gravy train by canceling the burning —don’t go looking for more reasons to
cover him.