Following the fatal shooting of three Muslim students near the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Fox News reported that their murder was “motivated by an ongoing dispute over a parking space, despite widespread speculation the victims were targeted by an avowed atheist because of their Muslim faith, police said.” Craig Hicks, who has been apprehended as the suspect, has been widely identified in the (right-wing) press as a “hardcore anti-religion progressive”, favoring Huffington Post, Rachel Maddow, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson, marriage equality groups, plus “a host of anti-conservative/Tea Party pages.” Wow! A real anarchist and typical murderer, then!
The Freedom From Religion Foundation responded that “when a crazed dad kills his children to send them to heaven, the media don’t contact local or national denominational heads seeking a statement on their religion’s role in this violence“.
It is outrageous to see someone, accused of a violent crime, identified as non-religious. What has that got to do with it? People with mental problems occur in every walk of life.
This “false trial by media” is all in the spirit of Fox News, which nonetheless has something to learn from the early Christians. These professionals misrepresented the teachings of Epicurus, so thoroughly that an epicure is now defined as a glutton. Now that is really effective propaganda, enduring no less than 2000 years!
Now we discover that the Daily Telegraph in Britain has been suppressing news about the criminal activities of the HSBC Bank owing to the importance to its balance sheet of HSBC advertising. The paper has been taken over , it appears, by people uninterested in journalism as it used to be. It is now a mouthpiece for corporate interests. Fortunately, there are still members of the media, such as the Financial Times and the Guardian who continue to report the news and comment on it without fear or favour. But for how long?
The only time when the religion of the assailant should be mention is the religion motivated him to commit the crime, such as in the case of Islamic terrorism. But for the most part, religion has nothing to do with it. Had the murderer been a Christian, I have no doubt that Fox News would not have mentioned his religion.
Even though I am not a conservative, I have long respected the Telegraph as a good example of quality journalism, as opposed to the populous ramblings of the Mail, or the establishment-loving Times. But with the resignation of Peter Oborne as the Telegraph’s Chief Political Editor, that respect has been greatly reduced.