How much blame does the media bear for the koran burner?

I agree with your post 100 %.

 

Here's an interesting perspective from TPM:


Justin Elliott reports on how much play the Koran-burning story has been getting in the Muslim world for weeks, before it became the dominant news story in the States. This is an important point, and it makes the hand-wringing over the U.S. cable nets' saturation coverage seem a bit quaint.

The only caveat I would offer is that I'm not sure the Koran burning has been as damaging to U.S. interests in the Muslim world as the American backlash against the Park51 project (nee "Ground Zero Mosque"). I was visiting with an Arab journalist at a dinner this week, and she told me that Arab elites understand that, as she put it, "You can do anything in America." So the Koran-burning stunt is seen for what it is. But the reaction to Park51, especially considering how much of it was driven by conservative elites in the U.S., has been far more troubling to Arab observers abroad. That's anecdotal, but it rings true to me.

--David Kurtz

 

Indeed. Apparently the most newsworthy stories are the things that are the worst parts of our society.

 

This is interesting. What interest does the media in the Muslim world have in inciting outrage against the Western world? Why do they do that?

 

if you don't see what is wrong with putting a mosque next to ground zero with a 9/11 tribute museum, than you're an idiot.

9/11 was a terrorist act done by islamic extremest... muslims were killed in the attacks, but the majority were not muslim, the VAST majority, in fact i've only heard 3 names of muslims who were on the planes.

it doesn't matter what THEIR reasoning is for putting the mosque at ground zero, the fact of the matter is it is incredibly insensitive to the families still grieving and to americans still grieving, remember it has only been NINE years.
so why would you put a grande muslim center next to the towers that were taken down by extremest. to me it looks like they are honoring the attacks, not the civilians lost.

honestly, i dont see how anyone doesn't see it this way, it just seems so clear to me. let me finish with the point that i believe they have EVERY right to put the mosque there, and if they do, well ill be disappointed but i dont live in ny so i can't really complain much.

 

o and for the op's question: yes the media is to blame, but i think muslims should look at all the backlash this guy is getting and see that most americans are against this and think this guy is a whack job.

we had a whole discussion in class on the different illegal ways we could stop this guy without the governments help lol.

if he burns the qur'an people should go burn the bible in front of him, see how that makes him feel...on second thought dont do that, i dont wanna go to hell lol. but i bet that would infuriate him

 

No kidding. I've been thinking the same thing, that if everyone had simply ignored this mad egomaniac, it would have been no more than a blurb on page 6. The News is creating news, like the networks used to create sitcoms, for ratings. This is ratings driven "news" is on the same plane as The National Enquirer. "They" are just putting a dress on the proverbial pig. It's still a damned pig.

 

When a backwoods yokel from hicktown, USA gets the attention of world leaders and the Vatican the first thing that pops in my head is...


USA!! USA!! USA!!

 

It is insane how much coverage this wacko is getting. I don't remember coverage like this for bible burnings.

That sad part is, what the repercussion might be for other westerners around the globe from all this media coverage of the wacko and the koran.

 

Maybe he really wants to be on Dancing With The Stars.

 

No question about it. I've been getting increasingly pissed off at the Democratic midterm campaign "strategy" we've been subjected to. Was it yesterday that the President, FINALLY, began attacking GOP congressional leaders by name? You know, like really busting them campaign style, instead of a bunch of polite mumbo-jumbo, beating around the Bush. I was like, why didn't you start doing this months ago? The GOP has been as bipartisan as a V-2 rocket heading for London in 1944.

 

The media wouldn't do it if we didn't read it and watch it. The problem is we click on links and watch shows about r****ds. Palin and Paris Hilton are r****ds but people watch and read about them which is why they stay in the media.

Media is all about the money. That's capitalism at its best.

 

Yes, but the truly sad part is that the "repercussions" are only triggered by the media coverage, reasonable people should not want "repercussions" against westerners just because of some wacko in Florida. There is hate there to begin with, and the media coverage serves as a trigger and justification to live it out.

 

Qur'an burning: From Facebook to the world's media, how the story grew

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/10/quran-burning-how-the-story-grew

It started as a provocative suggestion on a Facebook group – but within two months it was being described as a threat to world peace.

Terry Jones, an extremist pastor with a dwindling flock of followers in Florida, became an international hate figure, drawing universal condemnation from world leaders and prompting violent street demonstrations, when his plans to burn 200 copies of the Qur'an were revealed.

The chronology of the story's growth presents a cautionary tale on the power of rolling news and social media to push a marginal figure to the centre of the global stage.

It has led to anxiety in the media about its role but also prompted questions about how politicians and church groups handled the issue.

The germ of the story was a message, posted in July, on a Facebook group linked to a now unavailable website called Islam is of the Devil – the title of a book by Jones.

The Burn the Koran group called for followers to send photos of how they planned to burn the holy book on the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

The majority of commenters on the Facebook group voiced horror at the suggestion, and there was little sign of any support.

But within days, the story was picked up by the Religion News Service, which quoted Jones's claims that people had sent him copies of the Qur'an to burn.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations was asked for a response. It didn't take the bait – "We don't want to do anything that would be reactive," its director of communication said – but other religious organisations did not show such restraint.

On 25 July, Jones then cranked up publicity for the proposed book burning with an inflammatory video message on YouTube. Holding up a copy of the Qur'an, he said: "This is book is responsible for 9/11."

At this stage, the mainstream media took up the story. The Guardian's US blogger Michael Tomasky picked it up, and by the end of July there were articles on Yahoo News, while Jones had appeared on the CNN.

News of the pastor's plan spread to the rest of the world, with items featuring on the Arab satellite broadcaster al-Arabiya and in the Times of India.

On 3 August, the mayor of Gainesville, where Jones proposed to perform the stunt, urged the world's media to ignore him. Craig Lowe said Jones was part of a "tiny fringe group and an embarrassment to our community".

But Jones wasn't ignored, and religious groups began to condemn the proposed book burning.

The US-based National Association of Evangelicals called for the event to be cancelled. A few days later, the British group Campaign Islam posted a YouTube message claiming that the event would "wake up the [Islamic] lion from the den".

An influential Sunni authority in Egypt, the al-Azhar supreme council, accused Jones of stirring up hate.

Such statements appeared to confirm that the proposed stunt was damaging strained relations between the US and Islam.

By the time the New York Times profiled Jones on 25 August , he had already been interviewed by 150 media organisations.

But there were still few signs that the proposed burning had caused popular offence in the Muslim world until last Sunday, when 500 people in the Afghan capital, Kabul, took part in a protest. Effigies of Jones were burned alongside the American flag.

The following day General David Petraeus, the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, issued a statement to the Associated Press, warning that images of the Qur'an burning could provoke violent retaliation against US troops.

The general's intervention pushed the story to the top of the international news agenda, where it stayed for the rest of the week.

According to the counter-terrorism expert David Schanzer, of Duke University, North Carolina, Petraeus's comments gave Jones more credibility than he deserved.

In a video discussion on Bloggingheads TV, Shanzer said: "By having the head of our entire operation in Afghanistan ask them to refrain from this action, we've brought much more attention to this fringe element than it deserves."

Ignoring Jones would have "undercut his power", Schanzer added.

Hillary Clinton and the White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, joined in the condemnation, and yesterday , Obama said the stunt was "a recruitment bonanza for al-Qaida".

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the president of Indonesia – which has the world's largest Muslim population – described it as a threat to world peace and warned that it could create violence and retaliation that would leave "many victims".

The dispute may have been defused by Jones's last-minute change of heart last night.

But there was nothing inevitable about its escalation: in 2008 another extremist pastor with a small band of followers was setting fire to a Qur'an, but nobody seemed to care.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, Kansas – a homophobic group notorious for picketing the funerals of US soldiers – burned the copy of the Qur'an on a Washington street corner. But, weary of the group's gay-bashing provocations, media organisations stayed away.

 

If people didn't care (read: if people weren't stupid), then the media wouldn't cover it.

 

100%.

The "news" media today seems to pick one topic (usually something provocative, but ultimately 100% irrelevant in the grand scheme of things) and just DRILL IT INTO THE GROUND until they get tired of it and move on to another topic.

Rinse, lather, repeat.

My guess is that no one will even remember any of this nonsense a few weeks from now.

 

Don't know why constructing an Islamic center near the 9/11 site should be perceived as "honoring the attacks", unless people have internalized the mistaken notion that the conflict is Islam vs US rather than Islamic Terrorists vs US.

 

The media is no better than a forum troll. They only have the power we allow them to have. If people were smart enough to ignore it, or find better info sources, then it would go away... or the topic would change, at least.