Malena Amusa

“Muslims Bombs”

A Newsweek story that ran in late May asked why media coverage of a poll arguing that Muslims were “moderate with respect to many of the issues”skewed negative.

But when I picked up the story, I thought: well come on! The headline read “Media Coverage of Muslims Bombs”.

“Muslims Bombs” ? While the story concludes that media coverage is bent on demonizing Muslims, the headline replicates this violation—spinning the language of war to talk about Muslims.

Guess we can’t have it all, can we? Coverage of people of color and fair headlines. Now that’s asking for too much.Luckily Hussein Ibish had some interesting things to say in the piece:

So why, amid all the other encouraging data, would such a large number of media outlets mine the poll for evidence that Muslims—even the ones next door—are dangerous?

Hussein Ibish, executive director of the Foundation for Arab American Leadership, says the answer is as disturbing as it is predictable. “It suggests there is an appetite for negativity about U.S. Muslims in the American media,” he says. “There’s two templates post-9/11 for coverage about American Muslims.

One is they are scary—be very afraid. The other template is the sorry, poor pathetic victims of hate crimes. It’s villain or victim—a ridiculous set of choices—and coverage of this poll has fallen into the villain category. It’s irrational, because if you read the poll, it is actually quite positive.”

Posted at 1:28 PM, Jun 12, 2007 in Media Analysis | Permalink | View Comments