I’m preparing to do a larger post looking at the two distinct ways that the mainstream media have been covering the story of the shooting at Fort Hood — either viewing religion as a major aspect of the shooter’s motivation or working overtime to avoid considering religion as a major aspect. In my research, I came across this CNN interview of a private who was wounded during the attack. It’s an interesting video interview that was written up for CNN.com. Here’s how the write-up of the interview begins:
Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) — Pvt. Joseph Foster was filling out routine paperwork for his upcoming deployment to Afghanistan on Thursday when he heard a shout quickly followed by a burst of gunfire from just a few feet away.
“I was sitting in about the second row back when the assailant stood up and yelled ‘Allahu akbar’ in Arabic and he opened fire,” Foster said Monday on CNN’s “American Morning.”
Foster, 21, said he wasn’t clear about whether the gunman said those exact words, noting that “with that much adrenaline, you tend to forget things.”
The only problem is that Foster didn’t say he was unclear about whether the gunman said those exact words. Maybe two minutes after he describes the ‘Allahu akbar’ shout, interviewer John Roberts, asks him if he didn’t realize he’d been shot. He responds that he realized it when it happened but “with that much adrenaline, you tend to forget things.”
Before one can understand the religious aspects of this story, journalists need to just get the facts straight.
I should note that a separate story on the CNN.com site does not make the same error. That story, which you can read here, changes the name of the private from Joseph to Robert. Not sure what the story is there.
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Comments (7) |
November 11, 2009, at 3:10 pm
Nice catch!
November 11, 2009, at 3:17 pm
I do not get it - was the error due to gross incompetence, or was it deliberate? I mean, this is pretty bad…
November 11, 2009, at 4:25 pm
Whatever serves the purpose!
November 11, 2009, at 4:40 pm
The folks at CNN apparently have so much adrenaline that they tend to forget to get the facts straight.
November 11, 2009, at 4:42 pm
It’s a shame that I don’t think this was an error… I think this was an intentional twisting of quotes to fit the narrative the writer wanted to advance. Over the last decade I have seen so much of this kind of game played that I have a hard time thinking that this was an honest mistake.
Do members of the media not think we will notice this? I first saw this on another blog where they included the clip of the soldier being interviewed. Anyone watching it would see that his words were later twisted.
It’s like the recent story in the NYT about Muslims serving in the military. The esteemed ‘fact checkers’ didn’t catch that the Medal of Honor recipient Monsoor was a devout Catholic. They just figured that as he is ethnically Arab he must be Muslim and part of the story. Never mind that his official biography on the Navy website clearly states he was Catholic. It didn’t fit the narrative.
November 11, 2009, at 5:06 pm
I know you guys read us, but just in case: My take on Ft. Hood:
http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/religionandtheology/2022/spinning_ft._hood/
November 11, 2009, at 6:57 pm
From the first reports most of the MSM seemed determined to cover the Ft. Hood story with all the political correctness they could muster instead of looking at all possible aspects of the attack. To this day our president seems to get laryngitis when the words “terror” or “terrorist” begs to be used under the circumstances and as something that should be deeply probed.
The political correctness and diversity fanaticism starting at the top in Washington is going to destroy us. Part of the reason Hasan was allowed to go on his crazed why is apparently the fear others had of crossing the diversity code and ruining their own careers. (After all, most people don’t act out on their rantings anyway.)