Thursday, May 19, 2005

Debbie Schlussel, the Detroit News, Mitch Abolm and Michael Isikoff

Last week, Debbie Schlussel exposed a lie of the Detroit News related to the News' attempts to gin up sympathy for a soon to be deported terrorist. Debbie's column brought to light numerous additional MSM/DNC scandals related to terrorist prosecutions in the Detroit area. Today, Debbie follows up with a description of the Detroit News' "response."

She also provides some perspective on Michael Isikoff:
Then, there is Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff, whose source on alleged Koran toilet-flushing at Guantanamo Bay suddenly retracted—after publication. I know Isikoff. Full disclosure: about a month ago, he bought me dinner. But the underwhelming salmon didn’t buy my high opinion of him. Isikoff is a skilled, conscientious journalist, whose devotion to getting the story right is matched by few. I know of big-time stories he wanted to write but didn’t for that reason. Others, like his Monica Lewinsky story, were iced by Clintonista editors.

To blame Isikoff for the reaction of the Muslim world to the now-false story is absurd. Non-Muslim Bibles, houses of worship, and other religious icons are destroyed in the Muslim world every day—all without a wimper from us in the West and without an Isikoff story as purported impetus.

Remember Joseph’s Tomb, destroyed by Palestinians? How about the Al Aqsa Mosque—desecratingly built on top of the holiest site in Judaism, the Jewish Temple Mount in Jerusalem? Remember the Omayyad Masjid—the Damascus, Syria mosque where Pope John Paul II famously took his shoes off and kneeled? Forcibly “upgraded” from a church.

In “response” to Isikoff’s article, HAMAS rioted and protested in Gaza. Because everyone knows that, but for a Michael Isikoff article, HAMAS has always been a peaceful ladies’ afternoon tea-fest. They never engage in violent activity. Puh-leeze. Instead of self-flagellating about “why ‘they’ hate us,” it’s time we ask why we tolerate and pander to them.

While Debbie may be right about Isikoff (and is definitely right about the Muslim world and the U.S.' shameless pandering), this incident shows that the MSM/DNC is bigger than any one reporter. MSM/DNC tactics for undermining the West go beyond the ability of any one reporter to remain conscientious. My own belief is that the personalities, the motives, etc. of individuals within the MSM/DNC make little difference. By remaining with the MSM/DNC after his earlier stories were spiked, and by remaining with MSM/DNC even now after MSM/DNC has used his story to wreak so much damage, Isikoff gives up any claim to innocence that he might possess.

  • People's Pottage - permalink
  • Economics in One Lesson - permalink
  • Why Johnny Can't Read- permalink
  • Locations of visitors to this page