The New York Times found itself at the center of a controversy on Thursday over its refusal to immediately run an anti-Islam ad.
Fox News and the Daily Caller ran stories questioning whether the Times' decision to indefinitely delay publishing ad was a sign the paper had a religious double-standard.
The articles note that the Times previously ran an anti-Catholic ad that, among other things, said faith in the religion was misplaced, "after two decades of sex scandals involving preying priests, church complicity, collusion and cover-up going all the way to the top.”
But when Stop Islamization of America director Pamela Geller asked to run a paid advertisement with a similar style and anti-Islam message, the Times refused, at least for now, telling Geller that "the fallout from running this ad now could put U.S. troops and/or civilians in the [Afghan] region in danger.”
But the Times didn't shut the door to running the ad altogether.
"We have not made a decision not to publish the ad you refer to," a letter to Geller said, according to Fox News. "We made a decision to postpone publishing it in light of recent events in Afghanistan, including the Koran burning and the alleged killings of Afghani civilians by a member of the U.S. military."
Geller told the Daily Caller she doubts the Times will ever run the ad because, in her words, "when is it ever a good time to blaspheme under the Sharia?”
Mediaite isn't buying the Times' argument either.
"The bottom line is that both ads are terrible, and justifying that it’s safer to bash one religion over another is a tactless approach on the Times's part," Mediaite wrote.