A Conspiracy of Euphemism

The Atlantic ^ | 2 June 2009 | Jeffrey Goldberg

[Rummyfan]

The eight a.m. NPR news update today included word of the fatal shooting of one soldier and the wounding of another outside an army recruiting station in Arkansas. The news reader, Nora Raum, outlined the incident and stated that the shooting appeared to have "religious motivations." She did not name the suspect, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, or tell NPR listeners what those religious motivations might be. In other words, it could have been a radical Unitarian who gunned down the soldiers, or possibly a violent Presbyterian.

Why the shyness? Why not tell people what is actually happening in the world? We saw this a couple of weeks ago, when the press only gingerly acknowledged that the malevolent though incompetent suspects in the synagogue bombing-conspiracy case in New York were converts to Islam. How is the public served by this kind of silence? The extremist Christian beliefs of George Tiller's alleged murderer are certainly relevant to that case, and no one in my profession is hesitant to discuss them. Why the hesitancy to talk about the motivations of the man who allegedly killed Pvt. William Long?

[Jack Hammer]

It really insults the American people when these PC mavens tip-toe around the truth. For crying out loud, just spit out the peach pits and say it: It was yet another Moslem terrorist hit, pure and simple. Just say it - IT WAS YET ANOTHER MOSLEM TERRORIST HIT!

There - that wasn’t so difficult now, was it.

[Misterioso]

They don’t have to define it as a “terrorist hit,” even, but the name and religion of the suspect should be provided, if it is hinted that the motive was religion.

[livius]

Very acurate. My only quibble is that Roeder, the man who killed Tiller, doesn’t seem to have had “extremist Christian beliefs.” He was very opposed to abortion, but he was also very opposed to the IRS and a number of other things, and to my knowledge was not a church-goer or even well-known for being a Christian; if anything, he had a long track record as an all-around nut and unstable person, not as somebody who had got religion and thought he was acting on its principles.

[Talisker]

...stated that the shooting appeared to have "religious motivations." ...Why the shyness?

Wrong direction. You're lucky she admitted "religious motivations" are a factor at all. The MSM protects Muslim murder - that's the bottom line. If they admit anything that even slightly reveals the real Islam, it's either a mistake, or something so foul that they have to spin it somehow and in doing so, admit a tiny fraction of the bloody atrocity it really is. The mission of the MSM is to hide and enable Muslim terrorism with every ounce of power they have, nothing less. And every bottom-feeding, muck-crawling MSM producer, editor, reporter and journalist knows it, lives with it, accepts it and enables it with every shred of higher-education skill and refinement they can muster.

There are literally no words that can adequately describe these MSM scum.

[combat_boots]

The enemedia is afraid they’ll be killed by muslims if there is any bad news about islam to report.

[RegulatorCountry]

They’re going to have a problem making the label stick to Roeder, just like they had a problem sticking that label on Eric Rudolph, the marijuana growing drug dealer that he was. They tried to pin Ted Kaczinski with the same thing initially, but he was a revolving wingnut Goreloon with the rambling, near incoherent manifesto to prove it.

Some militant, anti-government types just want to see upheaval and conflict. That applies to both sides of the political spectrum, and has absolutely nothing to do with Christianity.

Too bad for the left, who seems to want such a thing so very badly.

[wastoute]

Libtards only wanted upheaval of "the system" when they didn't run it. I am sure you have noticed how in recent months "the system" is about the only hope we have left (according to libtards). When libtards are through wrecking our country they will sheepishly shrug and turn the thing back over to the adults just like a 16 year old who has wrecked the family car. Unfortunately between now and then there may be a whole lotta bad stuff.

Μολὼν λάβε

[livius]

Too bad for the left, who seems to want such a thing so very badly.

Yes, I thought maybe this was going to be our Reichstag fire, since the left is dying to find something to "justify" the suppression of Christians and churches, but I think in the end that it's going to be too hard for them to pin Roeder on Christianity. They'll just have to try again, I guess.

[FDNYRHEROES]

Maybe they should have called it a “domestic overseas contingency operation”...

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

"In other words, it could have been a radical Unitarian who gunned down the soldiers, or possibly a violent Presbyterian."

Why would he attack a U.S. soldier when, as the Reverend Wright-educated Bernardin-quoting doctor of Notre Dame President Barack Hussein has said the U.S. is "one of the largest Muslim countries in the world"? This is an actual certified (or certifiable?) doctor of the University of Notre Dame, handed a diploma by an arch-liberal who studied theology at Berkeley, so it has to be true, right? Like, he could be on the faculty of Tübingen or Harvard Divinity School leading a seminar on comparative religion...

[Seeing More Clearly Now]

The enemedia is afraid they’ll be killed by muslims if there is any bad news about islam to report.

Yes, you’ve hit in on the head. They convince themselves on some level that by not speaking the words that are crying to be said - “This is a pattern of Islamic terrorism murders, dear listeners,” a [pattern that any fool can see is a pattern, that they are somehow being champions of tolerance. Not far from the surface, though,is NIMBY fear and the audience knows it. Sports at 11...

[Talisker]

The enemedia is afraid they’ll be killed by muslims if there is any bad news about islam to report.

Individually, I agree. But if the MSM as a whole reversed course and started to write honestly about Islamic terrorism, Muslims would have nowhere to turn. Thugs are the same everywhere, and Muslim thugs are no different. IMO, once they realized they had no media backing, they'd implode against each other to try to find a way to stay safe.