AP Says It Will Not Distribute Photos Of Burning Korans

by Glynnis MacNicol | 2:20 pm, September 9th, 2010

» 18 comments

Quran_Burning_JPEG_663769l It’s official. Pastor Jones and his 30 followers have hijacked the newscycle. After nine years of managing to calmly and respectfully mark the anniversary of 9/11 the nation appears to have suddenly gone into nutty overdrive. So much so the State Department has issued a “‘Worldwide Caution’ to warn Americans of dangers abroad linked to plan for Koran burning and 9/11 anniversary.” So now the Koran burners, all 30 of them, are not just endangering our troops they are apparently endangering all Americans everywhere…with a lot of help from the media.

Except people everywhere will have a hard time getting their hands on images of Koran burning if the AP has anything to do with it. Yahoo’s Michael Calderone reports (via Romenesko) that the AP has announced it will “not distribute images or audio that specifically show Qurans being burned, and will not provide detailed text descriptions of the burning.”

Tom Kent, the AP’s deputy managing editor for standards and production, told staff Thursday that while the AP will cover the Gainesville, Florida event organized by pastor Terry Jones, it’s important to “plac[e] the actions of this group of about 50 people in a clear and balanced context.”

It’s a slippery slope. On the one hand, this is a story that desperately needs some context and balance, (or needed…that horse has sort of left the barn so to speak) and the decision not to add fuel to the fire with upsetting images is in many ways admirable. On the other hand, balance and context where this story is concerned went out the window a while ago — in the interim Gen. Petraeus, Hillary Clinton, President Obama and the State Department have all weighed in, meaning for better or worse this story has attained international importance. And good intentions aside it is always worrisome when a large news organization censors its own news reporting. Even when they are censoring things you wish had never been made newsworthy to begin with! As Calderone points out the “AP not distributing Quran images is big deal because of how many US papers rely on them — dozens used AP shots of Jones on Wed front pages.”

This is not the first time the AP has made headlines for its coverage Islam-related coverage, last month they announced they would not refer to the proposed Lower Manhattan community center as the Ground Zero Mosque.

AP, Ground Zero Mosque, Koran Burning, Michael Calderone

Moderate

Islam is the religion of peace, there is nothing to fear from them. It is the “Tea Party” people that are to be feared.
SpineCrusher

Moderate said:
Islam is the religion of peace, there is nothing to fear from them. It is the “Tea Party” people that are to be feared.

agreed
More Liberty

Moderate said:
Islam is the religion of peace, there is nothing to fear from them. It is the “Tea Party” people that are to be feared.

Are you two serious? Can you please list all the attacks and violence perpetrated by the Tea Party.

I guess the Tea Party rushes into the streets, mouths frothing asking for blood when the US flag is burned right. I mean, we can’t even show a picture of their “AllaH” or “Muhammad” with out them getting all worked up, running into the streets cursing the infidels.
More Liberty

I wonder if the AP would distribute pictures of US flags being burned? Or I wonder if they distributed pictures of the cross in the bucket of urine – I believe many people called it art.
Moderate

“Are you two serious?”

I was only testing to see if we had any extremists silly enough to agree with such a ridiculous statement.
marcus.lewis

More Liberty said:
I wonder if the AP would distribute pictures of US flags being burned? Or I wonder if they distributed pictures of the cross in the bucket of urine – I believe many people called it art.

You know it would be very simple to solve the flag burning incidences. Instead of trying to legislate (as they did back in the day) that burning the flag is illegal, just legislate that all US flags entering this country must be fire resistant. There–problem solved. Sometimes I just shake my head at how stupid legislatures are. Instead of trying to control actions, perhaps they should dig deeper and say well what is causing x to happen. So flags are burning—hmm if we say all flags sold here must be of a different material that won’t burn, and the majority of US flags are sold in the US, then wholesale production of flags will switch to that material and poof–we got ourselves a solution!
Big Eddie

Moderate said:
“Are you two serious?” I was only testing to see if we had any extremists silly enough to agree with such a ridiculous statement.

You got one .

SpineCrusher said:
agreed
Moderate

“switch to that material and poof–we got ourselves a solution!”

If flags don’t burn they would soak them in urine. It is the symbolism that counts. If you want to provoke a person demean what they believe in strongly, thus a cross in urine. It is a shame Muslims easily turn to violence when provoked.
Moderate

Building a Mosque on the the ashes of a great Military victory is also a way of provoking people. Next they will want to build a Mosque in the Pentagon.
marcus.lewis

Moderate said:
“switch to that material and poof–we got ourselves a solution!”

If flags don’t burn they would soak them in urine. It is the symbolism that counts. If you want to provoke a person demean what they believe in strongly, thus a cross in urine. It is a shame Muslims easily turn to violence when provoked.

Mind you, its not just muslims who turn to violence easily when provoked. I believe its also true of African Americans as well.

As for soaking a flag in urine… let them. That’s not something that is very symbolic and it doesn’t really generate any type of camera attention. Who would want to be around someone with a piss soaked piece of cloth.
felixw

Now that the mainstream media realizes that they can’t score points against Republicans with this story — since all the leading Republicans have come out against the Koran burning — they no longer want to cover the event. How convenient! And how strange that they weren’t so self-righteous a week ago, and made this the biggest story in the nation. But they didn’t find it a meaningless story until Palin, McCain, Romney, etc.repudiated the pastor and his book burning. Unfortunately the damage is already done, and they have turned what was essentially a non-story into a foreign policy disaster. Smart move, liberal journalists! Way to go!
greg454

What the hell is going on? Is everyone afraid of Muslim extremists now? Do they get to decide what is newsworthy? Unbelievable! First Fox and now the AP?

WAKE UP, PEOPLE! WE HAVE TO STOP ISLAM FROM DICTATING OUR CULTURE!
alamo2

marcus.lewis said:
Mind you, its not just muslims who turn to violence easily when provoked. I believe its also true of African Americans as well.

Hmmm, I seem to remember Martin Luther King’s non-violence philosophy. African Americans were beaten, lynched, had dogs sicced on them, were hit with fire hoses. I would assume that is being provoked. Yet, no violence.

What kind of loons do we have in this comment section?????
orionantares

Moderate said:
Next they will want to build a Mosque in the Pentagon.

You mean in addition to the prayer room?
Cecelia

SpineCrusher said:
agreed

You might want to let the Secretary of State and Gen Patraeus in on that one.

So far they haven’t issued any warning about Tea Party folks.
More Liberty

Moderate said:
“switch to that material and poof–we got ourselves a solution!”

If flags don’t burn they would soak them in urine. It is the symbolism that counts. If you want to provoke a person demean what they believe in strongly, thus a cross in urine. It is a shame Muslims easily turn to violence when provoked.

Good point. What is interesting here is that this threat to burn the Quran has resulted in numerous bibles being burned, flags being burned and chants of “deaths to Christians.” Where is the outrage against that. The true intolerant ones are showing themselves…once again.
More Liberty

greg454 said:
What the hell is going on? Is everyone afraid of Muslim extremists now? Do they get to decide what is newsworthy? Unbelievable! First Fox and now the AP?

WAKE UP, PEOPLE! WE HAVE TO STOP ISLAM FROM DICTATING OUR CULTURE!

When we dictate our freedoms based on their threats, terrorism has won.
Nachi

We really need to warn the world about the “dangers of”…Murcuhns!!