“A Tale of Two Media,” by Joel Mowbray in FrontPage (thanks to EPG):
To see a classic example of the divergence between “mainstream” and “alternative” media coverage, consider the portrayal of the Saudis this past week.
The “respectable” daily newspapers and news wires have reported that the Saudis, though still subject to some criticism, are finally getting serious about fighting terrorism. The blogosphere””the universe of “blogs,” short for web logs””and talk radio, however, have been buzzing over the murder of a family of Egyptian Christian immigrants in Jersey City and the report on Saudi-funded jihadist propaganda found in American mosques that might help provide some context for that horrible crime.
What most Americans will never know is that last week human rights group Freedom House put out a first-of-its-kind report documenting, in excruciating detail, the poisonous venom found in Saudi-created and funded “religious” materials available at prominent mosques across the United States.
A Lexis-Nexis uncovered just five””count “˜em, five””news stories in “mainstream” outlets on the Freedom House report. But the number is actually worse than it looks.
Four of the five are not traditionally part of the “mainstream” mafia: the Washington Times, the NY Sun (a new conservative paper), the Dallas Morning News (also right-of-center), and the Wall Street Journal (in its “B” section). Somewhat surprisingly, the fifth outlet covering the Freedom House report was the Washington Post….
The former imam at the El-Tawheed Islamic Center in Jersey City, Alaa Al-Sadawi, was convicted in 2003 of attempting to smuggle more than $650,000 to the terrorist organization Global Relief Fund in Egypt.
One of Al-Sadawi’s former spiritual followers murdered in the name of Allah. Alim Hassan, then 31, killed his pregnant wife, her mother, and her sister on July 30, 2002. He reportedly stabbed the women more than 20 times each because they refused to convert to Islam. According to reports, Hassan prayed regularly at El-Tawheed.
Radical Islamists may or may not be behind the recent murder of the Armanious family””though the mainstream media’s impulse is to favor the latter scenario””but what is clear is that it would not be surprising, both in light of what’s happened in Jersey City and nationally, as shown by Freedom House.
Just don’t expect the mainstream media to make that connection.