Fort Hood Fear-Mongering, Enabled By Media, Breeds Strange Bedfellows

Yesterday afternoon, Newsbusters plugged this story about ABC News's report via Brian Ross "that suspected Fort Hood shooter Nidal Halik Hasan tried to contact people connected to the terrorist group al Qaeda" with some intriguing language: "ABC reports story that many in media wish wasn't true." That raised a rather obvious question: Who out there, in the media or otherwise, was wishing that it was true? Doesn't it seem reasonable to wish that the Hasan shootings had nothing to do with al Qaeda at all?

Well, of course, there were people who were hoping against hope that Hasan was an al Qaeda-endorsed terrorist agent, and in a well-put essay on Gawker, John Cook identifies them: "terrorists and wingnuts."

Fanaticism makes strange bedfellows, and the push to link up Hasan to a wider terrorist plot has united Sen. Joe Lieberman and radical Yemeni cleric Sheikh Anwar Al-Awlaki in common cause. Wingnuts and neocons want Hasan to be a Muslim terrorist because it confirms their worldview that Muslim terrorists lurk in every shadow and helps them scare the shit out people. Muslim terrorists want Hasan to be a Muslim terrorist because it satisfies their desire to claim credit for the murders of Americans and helps them scare the shit out of people. Everybody wins.

Well, not everybody! The major losers in all of this are any adults who want to conduct a serious inquiry into the actions of an isolated, disturbed murderer and the signs that may have been overlooked in advance of his horrific killing spree. Many of these adults, like Secretary of the Army General George Casey, would like to keep these more important concerns from being washed away in a toxic backlash that would unnecessarily sully the names and reputations of the many soldiers of Islamic faith who have and who continue to serve their country with distinction. Nevertheless, the race is on to capitalize on this tragedy for the sake of juvenile political points, and the news hole is already getting clogged with precisely these sorts of kindergarten combatants.

The whole thing deserves to be read in full. Pay particular attention to the fact that the reporter behind the original report, Brian Ross, is a serial offender of narrative unreliability who's put on offer a report that "is a grab-bag of red flags." Cook blows that out further in a related post today, that thoroughly discusses the Problem That Is Brian Ross:

Ross' stock response to these complaints is that he only reports what his sources tell him. "We reported what we knew, when we knew it," he says. "I'm comfortable with the story." His problem, as we've said before, is that he has shitty sources. And he just repeats what they tell him. Which is how you get from "Hasan sent e-mails to his former imam, who now preaches in support of Al Qaeda. We don't know what the e-mails were about, but they didn't raise alarms at the FBI" to "Hasan tried to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda" to the headline's blunt, and thoroughly unsupported, reference to "Hasan's Contacts with al Qaeda." It would have been a good story if Ross had stuck to the first, accurate, formulation.

RELATED:
How the Ft. Hood Shooter Brings Radical Clerics and Right-Wing Nuts Together [Gawker]
How ABC News' Brian Ross Cooked His 'Hasan Contacted Al Qaeda' Scoop [Gawker]

Comments

[JTHC75]

Give me a break. Now it's fanaticism to posit that he was a religiousl­y-motivate­d terrorist? Why is that even controversial to say that that is a very likely reason for this guy's mass murder? If the guy was a radical Christian member of Operation Rescue and blew up an abortion clinic, would you be bemoaning the pundits who made the obvious connection? Would you bend over backwards to say he was mentally disturbed and traumatized from looking at abortion photos? I understand what people are trying to achieve here: We don't want to tarnish the reputations of the Muslim servicemen who serve loyally. However, I think we're grown up enough to understand this and make the distinction between co-religionists and nutters.

[miguelobrien]

Or on Morning Joe, for that matter.

[miguelobrien]

There's a thin line between Saturday night and Sunday morning." Jimmy Buffet said that.

There's a thin line between FOX and ABC, CBS, NBC, I said that.

Watch the "Today Show" regularly , for a clear example. What and how they choose to present as news. More important, what and who they leave out.

Ever notice the pin-striped suits and hooker shoes [six-inch stilletos]?

Was it Hoover who said, "The business of the nation is business"?

Well, certainly, the business of the MSM is business. Ever see Scott Ritter or Jeremy Scahill on "Today"?

[reno1190]

hasan should have said the magic word all of this could have been avoided "im gay" he would have been discharged thats for sure. only in america

[miguelobrien]

Fer sure. Ubetcha.

In the military, we all have to shower together sometimes. And we have to bend over and pick up the soap sometimes.

[bdaved]

I believe that Hasan did what he did to prevent Muslim soldiers from being compelled to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan, by creating a heightened sense of fear and distrust in the military, political leaders, and the public. He thought he could martyr himself to do so, and he's found many accomplices in the media.

[miguelobrien]

It hit me yesterday, listening to an NPR show about it. He has stirred up some serious discussion. Maybe we can carry it on here.

[rmonroe]

More fear mongering by the right and the right media. Well of course, they can't rape and pillage us if we are not in a constant state of fear. I refuse to be afraid and people in this country need to wake up and see what is going on. We need to come together to shut down the fear mongers in politics and the media. Now I am not saying we should not be afraid, it is just who we are afraid of that is the problem. We should be very very very afraid of the elite in this country. The ones who control the message in the media.

[emmajo]

I was outraged a local news station on the day of the shooting that referred to Maj Hassan as the "mastermind" of the shooting! This was not a Fox station where those kind of race baiting and inflamatory statements are standard. Is there no integrity remaining for those who preport to report the news.

[lynettema]

It's completely ironic. Hussan thinks in his warped psyche that he was helping Muslims when in fact he just scr.ew.ed all of them especially those living in this country.

[heartsick]

Hasan cracked under the pressure of being shipped out to war. From the reports I've read, he'd made it abundantly clear that he did not want to remain in the Army, he did not believe in the mission and he did not want to be deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq. It seems to me that he felt trapped and snapped. There is no evidence that I have seen that there was any larger operation or conspiracy. I wouldn't trust Joe Lieberman to investigate rat droppings even if he claimed to have seen the rat doing it. He is a dishonest broker period.

[marley22]

Conscientious objector status is available to all in the military. That would have been a better option than yelling 'God is great' before killing fellow Americans.

[nomadic]

I hate to disagree with you but active duty, even commissioned officers have been denied conscientious objector status for a long time. The argument is that this is an all volunteer military and no one can claim to be a CO after taking the oath. On some very rare occasions the status can be granted with people in extenuating circumstances. Considering all the military members who have tried to get CO status only a very small number have succeeded.
In short, especially with the PC "we love Muslims" surface attitude conveyed by the military though a very different attitude is evident once the grunts start drinking) this guy never had a chance of getting out.

[CelticMajic]

so it is perfectly fine to blame Fox and BillO for the actions of a shooter in KS but not ligitimate to highlight jihadi ties for this terrorist?

Either it is true or not. Wishing has nothing to do with it.

[Kittyfire]

You're right, the shameless captive media played right along with the anti-Moslem theme and did no actual journalism. Time to drum up a some anti-Islam emotion now that the scandal in Poppystan has everyone wondering why in the world the US still has troops there (much less the extra 20,000 that the President just sent). The scandal breaking over Karzai's brother getting caught with an SUV full of heroin and the info coming out that he is on the CIA payroll didn't help. All US personnel in Afghanistan need to pack their toothbrushes and come home!

[ebanks84]

I'm sure this will NOT be the last of the FEAR MONGERING in this country because I truly believe c.h.e.n.e.y is releasing all his "mind controlled" a.s.s.a.s.s.i.n.s to cause more demise among us so they can get us too scared of O.b.a.m.a being in charge. That's all it is. Watch as he and his youngun come forth with their "we are not safe with O.b.a.m.a" droppings as each one of these events cause us to pause with unbelievability.

Look at this week alone and all the sh.o.o.t.i.n.g.s thoughout the country. Do you really think these people came up with these bright ideas of destruction over night? This is an orchestrated fear campaign being manipulated by the FEAR MONGERS. And who else is more fealful than anybody you know? You're right, D.C., the annilhilator.

[ebanks84]

Check this link out and learn how it is done. You might be surprised:

http://theuniversalseduction.com/articles/mind-control-killings-quotes - and remember Chip Tatum worked for Bush Sr.

[heartsick]

C.h.e.n.e.y. is an out-of-power hater who delights in making mischief. Why was he always in an undisclosed location when he was VP and now he can't get enough attention for himself? He is preferable in the undisclosed location, in my view.

[marley22]

Oh stop with all the fear mongering.

[nomadic]

Intelligent questions are not fear mongering. That's what you and your ilk engage in.

[jeanwny]

It is sad to think that ABC via Brian Ross might harbor illusions of ratings that are prevelent at R Murdochs faux stations because of the numbers they claim to achieve, just saying!