FAIR on Islamophobic "smearcasting"

Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR)--an excellent media watchdog outfit whose work I've followed and tried to support for close to a decade now--has come out with a valuable series of case studies on Islamophobia in the media. Check them out.


Overview

Making Islamophobia Mainstream
How Muslim-bashers broadcast their bigotry

A remarkable thing happened at the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) nominations in February 2007: The normally highbrow and tolerant group nominated for best book in the field of criticism a book widely viewed as denigrating an entire religious group.

Comments

[Yunus Yakoub Islam]

Some of the stuff printed in the UK press is worrying and inflamatory - tabloid headlines brings news of someone in a hijab getting sworn at or spat on, but really, it's mild compared to what Muslims in the US have to tolerate from their media and pundits. Moreover, Americans always strike me more earnest and trusting, wheras most Brits don't trust the media anymore than they do politicians, although it's telling how keen some people are to believe what's said about Muslims compared to other news items.

[svend]

Salaams, Yakoub
An interesting observation. American political culture is really going down the toilet, thanks largely IMO to our woefully derelict corporate media. The ideological extremism of much of the contemporary American Right also plays a role, as these idiotic pit bulls are often merely taking what is now passed of mainstream conservatism to its logical conclusion.

And like our crackpot Robber Baron economic ideologies, our MSM dysfunctions are also spreading throughout the world.