Terry Jones and his burn the Koran "plans" suddenly became more important thanremembering 9-11.YouTube
The Koran burning was organized by a previously obscure little church insmall-town Florida.
Barack Obama might as well be getting asked about Snooki.
The anniversary of 9-11 is supposed to be a time of reflection — about all the lives lost, the way the world's forever changed — and maybe a call to volunteer service.
Instead it largely shifted this year to an obsession with a small-town Florida pastor who wants to burn the Koran (or at least wants people to talk about him possibly burning the Koran.) I don’t want to get into whether he has the right to do that, or how he could be putting lives at risk. The mainstream media has been doing that enough, which leads me to wonder why pastor Terry Jones is being giving a national pulpit to speak from to begin with.
First off, he is the leader of a flock of 50 parishioners more or less. How in the world did he become so newsworthy?
Important figures like General David Petraeus, President Barack Obama and others are being asked how they feel about the Koran burning threat. I’m guessing they would rather spend their time on other things. Maybe we could also ask them how they feel about Snooki’s recent court appearance while we’re at it.
The coverage of Pastor Jones reminded me about a story I heard about the race riots that occurred in our country in the 1960s. Local leaders who owned and controlled 99 percent of the Houston media at the time reportedly got together and made the decision not report any racial incidents that occurred. They felt doing so would inflame emotions and cause greater unrest.
Good Journalism? Maybe not. Did it help Houston avoid some of the nastier rioting that took place? Probably.
Am I the only one who finds it ironic that television won’t show us someone running out of the stands and onto the field at a major sporting event because they don’t want to give that person the publicity and encourage others to try the same dumb stunt. They feel the need to protect us from watching drunken fans, but people like the good preacher are OK to televise?
So what should the media do when it’s confronted with these types of stories? I heard a radio reporter interview Terry Jones this week. He asked if Jones would feel any responsibility should his actions cause harm. Jones' reply was no. The pastor would not feel responsible for another person’s action.
I wonder how the media would answer if asked that question? Are they going to feel any responsibility as well?
