On July 24, 2011, two days after Anders Breivik slaughtered 77 people, mostly teenagers, in Norway to call attention to his view that Muslim immigration was a bad thing, NBC‘s Meet the Press didn’t mention the words “Breivik” or “Norway.” Nor did CBS‘s Face the Nation.
On ABC, This Week With Christiane Amanpour–who prided herself on her international perspective–did have 258 words on the massacre. No discussion, but we did hear there were “some incredible survivor stories.”
Fast forward three-and-a-half years, after another politically motivated killing spree in Europe, this one resulting in the deaths of 20 people. This European violence was decidedly more interesting to Meet the Press, which previewed its January 11 episode:
PARIS TERROR ATTACK: As the French authorities dissect how these horrific acts of violence were committed in the name of Islam, Chuck Todd will ask Attorney General Eric Holder how the US government is dealing with potential home-grown terrorists in this country….
PLUS: The attack on Charlie Hebdo once again highlights the vulnerability of the West to deadly terrorist attacks that can paralyze a major city. How does religion encourage some people to choose violence? And can these attacks be prevented? Our panels weigh in.
Face the Nation, January 11, 2015
At Face the Nation, hostBob Schieffer described his upcoming show on Bob’s Blog (1/9/15):
After a series of terror attacks in Paris that left more than a dozen people dead this week, many questions remain about the perpetrators and their motives.
But the big question in the United States is: Are we safe here at home? We’ll ask the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, Attorney General Eric Holder, who will appear on Face the Nation from Paris where he plans to attend an international summit on terrorism.
Holder will meet with top European officials to discuss one of the gravest challenges of our day: preventing Westerners from traveling to the Middle East, training with terror groups, and bringing their terror home.
We’ll also talk to Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee.
Then Scheiffer said he would bring on Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) to “discuss the GOP agenda, which in the House includes withholding funding for the Department of Homeland Security in protest of President Obama’s recent executive order on immigration. In light of the Paris terror attacks, is this really the right time for a showdown on funding the department that keeps us safe?”
Scheiffer also promised another segment that would talk about “bigger questions about the influence of radical Islam and how to prevent these ‘lone wolf’ incidents from continuing in the future.”
This Week, January 11, 2015
On This Week, the topic of the day was likewise to be “Terror in Paris”:
On Sunday, This Weekcovers the latest on the terror attack in Paris, with Attorney General Eric Holder, and Sen.Richard Burr, R-N.C., the new chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Why is that Islamist violence is drop-everything fascinating to US corporate media, while a bloodbath by a right-wing anti-Muslim zealot doesn’t seem to be even worth talking about? Is it because Muslims are the only people who commit political attacks in the United States? Well, no–the vast majority of political terrorism in the United States is perpetrated by non-Muslims (Extra!,5/11).
In fact, the day before the Charlie Hebdo attack, a bomb went off outside the NAACP office in Colorado Springs, which the FBI was investigating as a potential terrorist attack (Democracy Now!, 1/9/15). The person wanted for questioning in the incident is described as “a white male around the age of 40.” But don’t expect corporate media to spend much time discussing the possible threat posed by middle-aged white guys.
