Posted on 01/03/2003 5:40:27 AM PST by EllaMinnow
Democrat reporter suspended following offensive e-mail DEMOCRAT STAFF REPORT
Political writer Bill Cotterell has been suspended from the Tallahassee Democrat for offensive e-mail remarks to a reader, Executive Editor John Winn Miller announced Thursday.
The one-week suspension without pay lasts until next Friday, Miller said.
In a statement, Miller said: "On behalf of the Tallahassee Democrat, I apologize to all of our readers, and most especially, to readers and members of the Islamic faith everywhere, for the intemperate e-mail comments of political writer/columnist Bill Cotterell. They absolutely do not represent the views and sensitivities of this newspaper. Worse, they run counter to many of the values we hold dearest, among them tolerance, diversity and inclusiveness."
Cotterell, a veteran reporter with 35 years in the news business, also apologized, saying that his comments were "grossly inappropriate."
Cotterell's e-mail responded to a reader upset with a cartoon by Doug Marlette that many thought was insulting to Muslims. The cartoon appeared briefly on the Democrat's Web site but was not published in the paper.
In his response, Cotterell criticized most Arab nations for not "getting over" the creation of Israel and making peace.
"OK, they can squat around the camel-dung fire and grumble about it, or they can put their bottoms in the air five times a day and pray for deliverance; that's their business," Cotterell wrote in his e-mail. "And I don't give a damn if Israel kills a few in collateral damage while defending itself. So be it."
His private e-mail was forwarded to the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and posted on its Web site. That prompted hundreds of e-mails and phone calls of protest to the Democrat about his remarks.
"Any journalist has a right to his or her political and religious views, but when those views are expressed in such bigoted terms, it raises questions about a media outlet's journalistic balance and objectivity," CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper said in a statement posted to ISLAM-INFONET, an e-mail list-serv moderated by CAIR.
Cotterell said that although he was responding to a reader who had offended him with her comments, "I should not have used disrespectful and insulting language in responding to her. I should not have become personally provoked."
Tennesse is worse off than I thought!
If I were he, I'd take the first camel out of town and look for a job elsewhere in a different field (he'll probably be blacklisted elsewhere, poor dude).
What's up is down and what's down is up. Nice guys finish last these days.
Leni
Several of the 9/11 terrorist bombers lived in Tennesse and if I remember correctly got some of their flight training there also.
Was it Knoxville?
In light of the Muslims "crying wolf", the following becomes somewhat surreal, chilling, and alarming:
(Dr. Anis Shorrosh)
The following is my analysis of Islamic invasion of America, the agenda of Islamists and visible methods to take over America by the year 2020! Will Americans continue to sleep through this invasion as they did when we were attacked on 9/11?
1. Terminate America’s freedom of speech by replacing it with hate crime bills state-wide and nation-wide.
2. Wage a war of words using black leaders like Louis Farrakhan, Rev. Jesse Jackson and other visible religious personalities to promote Islam as the original African-American’s religion while Christianity is for the whites! Strange enough, no one tells the African-Americans that it was the Arab Muslims who captured them and sold them as slaves, neither the fact that in Arabic the word for black and slave is the same, “Abed.”
3. Engage the American public in dialogues, discussions, debates in colleges, universities, public libraries, radio, TV, churches and mosques on the virtues of Islam. Proclaim how it is historically another religion like Judaism and Christianity with the same monotheistic faith.
4. Nominate Muslim sympathizers to political office for favorable legislation to Islam and support potential sympathizers by block voting.
5. Take control of as much of Hollywood, the press, TV, radio and the internet by buying the corporations or a controlling stock.
6. Yield to the fear of imminent shut-off of the lifeblood of America — the black gold. America’s economy depends on oil, (1000 products are derived from oil), so does its personal and industrial transportation and manufacturing — 41% comes from the Middle East.
7. Yell, “foul, out-of-context, personal interpretation, hate crime, Zionist, un-American, inaccurate interpretation of the Quran” anytime Islam is criticized or the Quran is analyzed in the public arena. (e.g., Public Broadcasting Service - PBS)
(Dr. Anis Shorrosh in Koenig's International News, December 22, 2002)
hehe.... did I do that??
Now let's see what CAIR has to say to me.
This is uncanny in it's predictions . . .
From Dr. Shorrosh's Twenty-Year Plan for USA: Islam Targets America"
1. Terminate America's freedom of speech by replacing it with hate crime bills state-wide and nation-wide.
7. Yell, "foul, out-of-context, personal interpretation, hate crime, Zionist, un-American, inaccurate interpretation of the Quran" anytime Islam is criticized or the Quran is analyzed in the public arena.
13. Appeal to the historically compassionate and sensitive Americans for sympathy and tolerance towards the Muslims in America who are portrayed as mainly immigrants from oppressed countries.
19. Send intimidating messages and messengers to the outspoken individuals who are critical of Islam and seek to eliminate them by hook or crook.
(end of quote)
Incredible. Just incredible!
Yep. Got it. Keep up the good work!
But do we care if China kills a few (thousand) Americans with the weapons technology that Israel recently sold them?
Enquiring minds want to know.
I noticed that also . .. amazing just how far the tax dollar will go, eh?
Tax the U.S. worker. Give it to the Israelis. They sell it to the Chinese. They blah blah blah..
I fully support Israel, but this needs to be heard (and fixed).
dep
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