Media bias called out
It is not very often that someone in the media comes out and tell a truth that most in the media tend to deny. Media bias is a very subtle form of oppression. Recently Dalia Mogahed, co-author of the book “Who Speaks For Islam?” used a phrase that was very telling. Speaking about Muslims she said that the media ignores not the silent majority, but the silenced majority. That is a consequential form of media bias that harms in rather extreme ways.
It was refreshing to watch Harry Smith tackle media bias in a not too subtle form. He articulated on air what many have been writing about. It needed to be said.
“Think about this,” Harry Smith said. “There was a range of attacks that happened week after week after week after week after week. And until it land on our front doorstep, with our old best friend, Paris, then we go ‘Oh my God’. Right? It had happened in Turkey. It happened in Lebanon in the days before. Constantly.”
Former State Department Middle East Expert Hillary Mann Leverett then chimed in. “Even in Saudi Arabia itself and in Iraq certainly. Constantly. And then here. And then President Obama I think meaning well came out and said this is an attack on the civilized world. That went down badly throughout the Muslim world. Which again, we have to watch out what we do which serve as recruitment to these organizations. You can’t just kill them all.”
It is one thing to talk about it. The question is, will anything be done about it? How many realized that that one Obama comment sent ripples throughout the Muslim world? Reporting more extensively on issues like this would likely help us all not make unforced errors. Media bias harms us all.