It’s unfortunate that Shep made that off-the-cuff remark and I hope he takes a moment to apologize or clarify. He gets a lot of respect from the mainstream and though I’m sure it won’t hurt him in the long run, it’d be nice, if says something to help.

Magister, what was Smith’s comment that you want him to address?

If it is in the article I missed it.

@Grammie: I saw it someplace yesterday, but Steve put a link containing a video on page two of this post.

http://rawstory.com/2009/11/name-tells-us-a-lot/

This is a good example of why FNC is on top. Shep was the man yesterday! He didn’t just quote the cousin like CNN did, he got an acutal interview!

Although Anderson mentioned that Hasan was a Muslim, there was a lot of PC going on on AC360 and its live blog last night.

Although 360 spent a great deal of time discussing the murders at Fort Hood, Anderson chose not to talk about the the violent sect of the Muslim faith and how it may have influenced Hasan’s actions, and his blog moderators were careful to screen out many comments that dared to even suggest it. Although when James Von Brunn, murdered black security guard Stephen T. Johns in June at the Holocaust Museum, Anderson was quick to blame white supremacist groups and the 360 live blog was filled with comments associating white supremacists with violence.

Anderson and his blog commentors did their best to try to suggest that Hasan’s actions were the result of some sort of mental illness or “anti-Muslim harassment from fellow soldiers,” or the stress of not wanting to be deployed to the war zone, rather than blame it on any deliberate act of hate by Hasan. Instead Anderson was quick to point out that Hasan was ” an American Muslim born here in this country” and that Hasan’s cousin described him as “a good American.”

He even interviewed Dr. Heidi Kraft who tried to make the excuse that:

“. . .medical personnel and chaplains that are deploying to the combat zone and providing this care in those austere and difficult environments, often under their own type of fire.”

Randi Kaye was “allowed” to briefly bring up Hasan’s questionable Web postings about “suicide bombers, but Anderson quickly put a stop to that.

Also, the AC360 blog does not contain a single post talking about the violent sect within the Muslim religion, however, when someone like Brunn commits the same unspeakable act it is filled with numerous discussions and warnings about the rise of white hate groups.

Anderson is always more than willing to criticize and condemn acts of violence committed by white perpetrators, but he does his best to excuse or try to put less importance on the same types of acts committed by minorities, in particular blacks, choosing instead to try to “humanize” them, I suppose in an effort to gain some sort of public sympathy for these criminals.

@Magister – Matthews said basically the same thing yesterday as well. It is just not getting the same coverage as Smith’s comment because it was not FOX

Thanks for the quick help! I totally missed that the article was continued to a second page. As my Mama always said to me “if it had been a snake it would’ve bitten you. :)

Although I’m sure I saw that particular interview and now remember the comment it did not make a huge impression at the time I guess b/c from the very first breaking news I considered the likeliest outcome would be Islam/jihad/terrorist related to one degree or the other.

I’m not surprised that the more we learn today that that is how it seems to be playing out.

I am absolutely astounded to learn that in spite of all the warnings and even an investigation of some sort nothing was done to even try to contain the murderous pig.

@germ: Chance are, if it was on MSNBC, nobody saw him. (link?)

…oh, and technically, Matthews is an opinion host.
He has fans in political circles, but unlike Shep, he’s not known for news.

@Magister I was watching the Twitter hash #FtHood yesterday and there was a surge of people tweeting it. I was at work and did not see it myself. I agree with that is something that Smith should not have said, but I am glad he just moved on after the comment and didn’t harp on it. What I saw watching CNN, MSNBC, and FOX last night is that everyone was taking extra care with handling the suspect because of his faith.

The reason I paid such close attention to this yesterday is because this happened right across the street from my old barracks when I was stationed on Ft Hood from 2001 – 2005. I had gone through many processings and “seminars” at that location.

“What I saw watching CNN, MSNBC, and FOX last night is that everyone was taking extra care with handling the suspect because of his faith.”

Why do you think, as it appears to me that you do, that the media as a whole handling his religion and any motivation that might entail with kid gloves is the right thing to do?

It strikes me that we’ve gotten into the matter of The Emperor’s New Clothes” if everyone is too PC to talk about the 800 lb gorilla in the room!

Anderson is always more than willing to criticize and condemn acts of violence committed by white perpetrators, but he does his best to excuse or try to put less importance on the same types of acts committed by minorities, in particular blacks, choosing instead to try to “humanize” them, I suppose in an effort to gain some sort of public sympathy for these criminals.

No, the reason he and other people try to do that is to minimize the fall out on all the innocent members of the minority. When one member of a minority group many people are already prejudiced against does something that reinforces peoples prejudices and stereotypes responsible people with a public voice try to make clear this is only one individual and to explain the nuances of the situation to move things beyond knee jerk ideas.

Anti-muslim prejudice in America has lead to not just attacks on arab-American citizens but also people like east indians who just looked dark enough that assailants thought they were arab. Responsible people show an awareness of that.

It misleading and unfair to bring up the Jon Klein quote here and use an abnormal breaking news situation to assess the accuracy of the quote. Klein’s statement and the article it was part of was about networks’ standard coverage, not the occasional major breaking news day.

FOX News’ own representatives have recently stated many of their shows are editorial and not news. Not only are they not news, but by FOX’s own account they are so clearly not news any average person should be able to spot that fact. According to them Greta and Hannity’s shows are not news. FOX & Friends, Neil Cavuto, the O’Reilly Factor, Glenn Beck are also not news.

@nam Misleading how? Because Fox says they are not news shows, but CNN tries to pass off AC360 or Campbell Brown as a news show?

“According to them Greta and Hannity’s shows are not news. FOX & Friends, Neil Cavuto, the O’Reilly Factor, Glenn Beck are also not news.”

As opposed to which shows on CNN and MSNBC which are not news? If it is remarkable that FOX has opinion/commentary hosts in your mind then you must feel that the other Cable News Networks do NOT have them or FOX would not be remarkable FOR having them.

You see how carrying your “logic” out to its logical conclusion requires a bit of fancy foot work.

@nam, That is a lot of PR BS. That is no reason or excuse to ignore the obvious or try to diminsh their crimes.

Let me get this straight. Are you insinuating that it is O.K. when whites are victimized because they are supposedly the “majority?” Give me a break!

Let’s put the blame where it belongs. The only people who are reinforcing prejudices and stereotypes are the members of the Muslim community who commit or support violent acts like these.

@germ, I agree. I can’t think of one programon CNN that would not qualify as an opinion orientated show. They don’t have a single show that compares with Shep’s two programs or with “Special Report.”

Anderson was on Oprah today and finally talked about the black Cleveland serial killer Anthony Sowell, whose story he has been avoiding on 360, but instead of discussing how horrific these crimes were he talked about how rare it is for blacks to commit these types of crimes and of course Oprah jumped all over that.

I am sure this info will be a great comfort to the families of Sowell’s many victims, who, by the way, were black women.

Did the little president man really pause and give a shout out to his dirty socialist homies before addressing the tragedy? I read that this afternoon but it was busy and I forgot where.

hdmi