Loading ...AP: Flag burning yes, cross burning yes, Quran burning no
flockwoodRomenesko has posted a memo from an Associated Press muckety-muck. It’s a heads-up to let everybody know that AP won’t be moving any pictures of Qurans being burned in Gainesville, Fla. The memo states:
“Should the event happen on Saturday, the AP will not distribute images or audio that specifically show Qurans being burned, and will not provide detailed text descriptions of the burning. …
AP policy is not to provide coverage of events that are gratuitously manufactured to provoke and offend….”
That last line was certainly worth a chuckle. HOW MANY THOUSAND STORIES has the Associated Press written about Fred Phelps? How many thousand photos of “God Hates Fags” signs has AP shipped to every corner of the globe?
AP file photo
How many photos has AP moved of U.S. flag burnings and Ku Klux Klan cross burnings? How many images did AP transmit of Nazis marching in Skokie, Illinois?
AP, on a regular basis, covers events that are gratuitously manufactured to provoke and offend. And it’s done so for decades.
AP file photo
A more honest memo would have simply said: We’re afraid. We’re afraid innocent people are going to die if this Quran burning happens. We’re afraid we’ll be adding fuel to the fire by taking photos and disseminating them around the globe. We’re afraid radical Islamists will target and kill our employees and blow up our buildings.
AP’s decision is not, primarily, about having good manners or respecting diversity or promoting toleration. This is pure primal fear. And if I were an AP executive, I’d be scared, too.
This is dynamite we’re playing with.
September 9th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Makes me want to burn one just so people will relax about it and realize that the sky isn’t falling. Seriously, if our foreign relations can be compromised by any jackass with a box of matches and a library card, we’re in trouble.
September 9th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Jackass??? Are you kidding? Since when have you been willing to stand up for something in the face of violence and intimidation.
The dhimmi are out in force on this one. Cowards, all.
The freedom to burn books is worth fighting for. Islam takes away that freedom, THINK ABOUT IT.
September 9th, 2010 at 6:32 pm
Given the rate of violence against reporters in the world today – both syndicated and independents – this is a real concern. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 68 journalists worldwide were killed for their work in 2009. Many more were beated, tortured, kidnapped or arrested. http://www.ifex.org/international/2009/12/22/year_end_report/
In 2009, 244 cases of attacks and intimidation against journalists and media workers were registered in Mexico. Of those cases 11 journalists were assassinated and one more has disappeared.
The year 2010 is going to be maybe worse for journalists.
On 12 April 2010, Enrique Villacana Palomares’s body was found. The Mexican journalist had been kidnapped and executed, probably by the cartel.
On 9 May 2010, Tedros Menghistu Wondefrash, an Eritrean expatriate journalist was attacked by supporters of Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki at a public event in eastern Texas.
On 7 September 2010, Riyad Assariyeh, a 35-year-old journalist working for state-run Al Iraqiya TV, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen as he was leaving his home in Baghdad. This murder brings to 15 the number of Al Iraqiya journalists who have been killed since Saddam Hussein’s removal.
September 9th, 2010 at 9:52 pm
Justin, I hope you would agree with me, now is the time Christian all over the world going thru test of tolerance and I hope they would overcome this turbulences by applying Christ’s principle of peace making weapon by turning other cheek with determination of hope. We know Muslim hates Jews as well as Christian, because it is advised to do so by their holy book. On the contrary the Bible teaches to love our enemy. This is the fundamental difference between the Bible and the Koran. Let the Bible, the Cross and our national flag be burnt, but still let the Koran be unhurt, upholding instruction of Prince of Peace.
The real peace between Muslim and non-Muslim would not come unless roots of hatred have been uprooted. This is not possible by burning Koran or building a mosque near ground zero where thousands of people died because of fanatics of Islam. Both legal issues, freedom of speech and freedom of religion is irrelevant in present crisis. Sensitivity of democratic value is important and I hope wisdom of peace would come out of this trouble water.