al Queda publishes web magazine

CNN.com has this article discussing the publication of a second online issue of "Inspire" magazine. According to the article, the magazine, published in English, has articles featuring political opinion as well ones describing how to commit terrorist acts like bombings and shootings in crowds in a way to ensure media attention.

Mosque gets approval at Ground Zero

I saw a commentary/wrap up on Good Morning America this morning about the decision to allow the building of a mosque at the Ground Zero site in New York City. It was interesting to watch ABC's George Stephanopoulos talking about this issue with a Fox News contributer (announced as such) who focused in the story on the fairness of the brand new mosque being approved when a Greek Orthodox congregation that was destroyed in 2001 has not been allowed to rebuild.

The story has gotten a lot attraction in the blogosphere, both from neutral and less neutral sources, but I thought it was interesting to compare both networks' coverage.

ABC here.


Fox here.

Blog post questions media coverage choices

This post at the blog Bitch, Ph.D. has a musing on Eid-al-Fitr, including a reference to a news story about a mosque in Dayton, OH, where some sprayed an irritating gas into the mosque nursery during prayers.

The end of the post, which analyzes the play of the story is more interesting:

"A Google News Search-culled sample of some of the news outlets that have covered the story: BeliefNet, Huffington Post, Israeli News, Wisconsin Progressive.org, MidEastYouth.org, DemocracyNow, and a handful of local Ohio outlets. Notice anything? Not a single major outlet. Not the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, or even the Trib.

It's disgusting. I'd wager a week's pay with you that if someone sprayed an irritant gas into a church or a synagogue or a g-d (edited) Girl Scouts meeting, where children were hurt, it would be a "story" for at least one day. But here, the story is inconvenient. Hell, all those Muslims just go around killing each other anyway, right? Isn't that what they're doing in Iraq?"

Pro-Islam ads on subways draw criticism of sponsor

CNN has this story about ads encouraging viewers to investigate Islam. U.S. Representative Peter King has written to the New York City's transit authority asking them to stop the ads, because, he says, the sponsor is a known Muslim extremist.

The CNN story goes into a great deal of the history of Siraj Wahhaj, imam of a Brooklyn mosque, while discussing his role as a character witness in favor of convicted 1993 World Trade Center bombing planner Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman.

Free speech issues are mentioned briefly in a story that could also be about the balance of free speech and good taste in public spaces.