NYT Sees Danger After ‘Christian Extremist’ Attack in Norway, But ‘Understanding’ for 2005 Muslim Bombers of London
Sunday’s front-page, over-the-fold New York Times headline on the massacre in Norway (over a story by Scott Shane and Steven Erlanger) was blunt: “ As Horrors Emerge, Norway Charges Christian Extremist – Manifesto Shows Plan of Attack, Fear of Islam .” But while the Times showed no reluctance to identify Anders Behring Breivik, the lone gunman in the Norway attacks, as a “ Christian extremist ” in a front-page headline and hinted at more danger from “right-wing extremists” in Europe (photo credit Jon-Are Berg-Jacobsen/Agence France-Presse) the paper previously showed a clear reluctance to identify Islam after the last major terrorist attack on Europe, the deadly July 7, 2005 attacks by Muslim terrorists on subways and buses in London that killed 52. Instead the Times treated the attacks as British Prime Minister Tony Blair's ” bitter harvest ” for following President George W. Bush into Iraq. As more information about the London attacks came, a July 9, 2005 story focused on a theory “that the plot was carried out by a sleeper cell of homegrown extremists rather than highly trained terrorists exported to Britain.” But what kind of extremists? The Times left out the words “Islam” and “Muslim.” (“Muslim” showed up only in a quote, and without context.) Erlanger and Shane reached back to the Oklahoma City bombings of 1995, calling killer Timothy McVeigh “the right-wing American.”
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on July 25, 2011. Filed under