Salon: "How The 'Ground Zero Mosque' Fear Mongering Began

[Hissyspit]

http://www.salon.com/news/ground_zero_mosque/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2010/08/16/ground_zero_mosque_origins

MONDAY, AUG 16, 2010 07:01 ET
WAR ROOM
How the "ground zero mosque" fear mongering began

BY JUSTIN ELLIOTT

- snip -

In short, there is no good reason that the Cordoba House project should have been a major national news story, let alone controversy. And yet it has become just that, dominating the political conversation for weeks and prompting such a backlash that, according to a new poll, nearly 7 in 10 Americans now say they oppose the project. How did the Cordoba House become so toxic, so fast?

In a story last week, the New York Times, which framed the project in a largely positive, noncontroversial light last December, argued that it was cursed from the start by "public relations missteps." But this isn't accurate. To a remarkable extent, a Salon review of the origins of the story found, the controversy was kicked up and driven by Pamela Geller, a right-wing, viciously anti-Muslim, conspiracy-mongering blogger, whose sinister portrayal of the project was embraced by Rupert Murdoch's New York Post.

Here's a timeline of how it all happened:

Dec. 8, 2009: The Times publishes a lengthy front-page look at the Cordoba project. "We want to push back against the extremists," Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the lead organizer, is quoted as saying...

- snip -

Dec. 21, 2009: Conservative media personality Laura Ingraham interviews Abdul Rauf's wife, Daisy Khan, while guest-hosting "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox. In hindsight, the segment is remarkable for its cordiality. "I can't find many people who really have a problem with it," Ingraham says of the Cordoba project, adding at the end of the interview, "I like what you're trying to do."

(This segment also includes onscreen the first use that we've seen of the misnomer "ground zero mosque.") After the segment — and despite the front-page Times story — there were no news articles on the mosque for five and a half months, according to a search of the Nexis newspaper archive.

MORE

[gratuitous]

1. How?

It's that darned librul media! The last place I'd expect an accurate analysis would be from the very organ in our society that ginned up this fake controversy.

[babylonsister]

3. Or racist POS writers who can't wait to get their hate on, and

are affiliated with just the right vehicle, faux, to do so.

[gratuitous]

13. Okay, there's that, too

I caught the opening segment on the Today Show, which was dedicated to this "controversy." In the interest of fairness, they did note right off the bat that it isn't a mosque, and it isn't being built on the site of the World Trade Center. But that was done almost in passing. After that, it was "mosque" this and "ground zero" that, noting that the August Personage of the former nearly half-term governor of Alaska had demanded that the President of the United States issue a more definitive statement. This should be sufficient to keep the "controversy" alive for several more days. By Labor Day, nobody will remember a thing.

[tanyev]

2. Kick to read later.

[annabanana]

4. I swear, the media uses polls to gauge how "effective" their

propaganda is at any given time.

The more the polls shift against the community center, the more they high-five in executive offices.

[Billy Burnett]

8. You are absolutely correct.

During election debate coverage some news sellers show us a select group's reaction to the statements/answers being given during the debate, using a graph measuring the favorability levels as input by the select group.

Advertisers and news departments do exactly the same thing, and more, to constantly measure and tailor the efficacy of their messaging.

www.smpte.org

[The_Commonist]

5. It's always fascinating to see how these stories gain traction.

And, it's always fascinating to see how many, um... what's the phrase Mr.Scorpio used the other day? to see how many god-damned idiots fall for this crap over and over and over and over again...

[steve2470]

6. k&r nt

[Douglas Carpenter]

7. fascinating article

snip:

Here's a timeline of how it all happened:

* Dec. 8, 2009: The Times publishes a lengthy front-page look at the Cordoba project. "We want to push back against the extremists," Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the lead organizer, is quoted as saying. Two Jewish leaders and two city officials, including the mayor's office, say they support the idea, as does the mother of a man killed on 9/11. An FBI spokesman says the imam has worked with the bureau. Besides a few third-tier right-wing blogs, including Pamela Geller's Atlas Shrugs site, no one much notices the Times story.

snip:

May 6, 2010: After a unanimous vote by a New York City community board committee to approve the project, the AP runs a story. It quotes relatives of 9/11 victims (called by the reporter), who offer differing opinions. The New York Post, meanwhile, runs a story under the inaccurate headline, "Panel Approves 'WTC' Mosque." Geller is less subtle, titling her post that day, "Monster Mosque Pushes Ahead in Shadow of World Trade Center Islamic Death and Destruction." She writes on her Atlas Shrugs blog, "This is Islamic domination and expansionism. The location is no accident. Just as Al-Aqsa was built on top of the Temple in Jerusalem." (To get an idea of where Geller is coming from, she once suggested that Malcolm X was Obama's real father. Seriously.)

snip:

Within a month, Rudy Giuliani had called the mosque a "desecration." Within another month, Sarah Palin had tweeted her famous "peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate" tweet. Peter King and Newt Gingrich and Tim Pawlenty followed suit — with political reporters and television news programs dutifully covering "both sides" of the controversy.

Geller had succeeded beyond her wildest dreams.

http://www.salon.com/news/ground_zero_mosque/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2010/08/16/ground_zero_mosque_origins

[no_hypocrisy]

9. Taken to a new extreme: Hamas wants the mosque built.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/hamas_nod_for_gz_mosque_cSohH9eha8sNZMTDz0VVPI

Murdoch's New York Post strikes again.

SMH

[NJmaverick]

10. I find the right wing's desire to take away our freedom of worship

beyond reprehensible. :mad:

[annabanana]

11. No kidding... I'm calling Peter fucking Kings office to remind him of the discrimination

his grandmother probably got hit with as a Catholic. .back in the days that everyone "knew" that a Catholic couldn't become president because he'd take his orders directly from the Pope.

It is beyond disgusting that he's shooting his blow hole against this center...

[SOS]

12. More on bigot Pamela Geller

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2010/05/26/2010-05-26_ads_anger_muslims_tea_party_favorite_launches_crusade_against_islamization_of_am.html

Tea Party hero.
Says Obama supports Al Qaeda.

We will never see her on CNN. It would blow the whole corporate media story line.

The originators of this unconstitutional hate-fest are too freakish to show in public.
They just wait for a tool like Giuliani to pick up the story and give it some credibility.

[OilemFirchen]

14. Really?

http://mediamatters.org/research/201007140035

MSNBC hosts Geller, who suggests the Islamic center is a "triumphal mosque" on "conquered lands."

CNN's American Morning hosted Geller to argue that the Islamic center was being built on Ground Zero's "cemetery" and to rail against "Mosque-ing the workplace" and against "introducing Muslim prayer into public schools."

NBC Nightly News gave Geller platform to discuss community center controversy.

CNN Newsroom hosted Geller to say building the community center near Ground Zero is a "kick in the head" to Americans.

Trust me. Geller has no shame. Nor, apparently, does the media.

[SOS]

15. I stand corrected

Astonishing really.
That they would have this lunatic on.
She's the Orly Taintz of New York.

Excellent Media Matters link.
She's really a twisted individual.

"Obama's Trains"?

:puke:

[DarkValkyrie]

16. Principles are being ignored

In the end, to deny something like this would go against the constitution. The US was founded under the rights of the document, to deny and persecute any one religion would be very hypocritical, why are the GOP and their supporters against our founding documents?

[Hissyspit]

17. Kick nt