"Double Standards in the Media" may be due to journalists selfishness

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Apr 24, 2011 at 16:34

Dear Dr Pipes:

Your respondent in this message correctly pointed out how there are rampant double standards in the media when it comes to criticizing Islamic fundamentalism. I have seen this behavior in many newspapers and media outlets from around the world where many prominent journalists criticize relatively minor biases against Muslims in modern non-Islamic democracies but ignore major crimes against non-muslims in Islamic nations.

The goal of every journalist is to sound fair. That is the only way to get published. How can you sound fair? You can sound fair by criticizing religious intolerance. But it takes courage to criticize Islamic-intolerance because that will be politically incorrect, because organizations like CAIR and Islamic brotherhood will go against you, and because one billion Muslims will single-mindedly go after you, and because you may even be killed. So what do you do? You close your eyes to Islamic intolerance but --to establish your liberal credential-- simultaneously criticize even minor offenses against Muslims in non-Islamic societies. So a safe strategy to get published and establish yourself as a liberal fair-minded analyst is to ignore Islamic felonies but vehemently criticize non-Islamic misdemeanors (so to say). That brings the best of both worlds to the journalist!

That is why when a pastor in Florida questions the content of Quran, he is called a bigot but when tens of people are killed in retaliation in Afghanistan, nothing is criticized. And that is why no one questions when Islamic majority countries are constitutionally Islamic with few rights for non-muslims but non-Islamic democracies are obligated to be multicultural. Keeping mum about Islamic societies and simultaneously criticizing non-Islamic democracies takes no courage and establishes your liberal credentials. That is why there are double standards in the media.

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