Saturday, July 23, 2011

Christian Extremist Is Charged in Norway

That's the headline on the New York Times's story about the Norwegian shooter: Christian Extremist Is Charged in Norway. Can you imagine a similar headline if he'd been a Muslim? And the story goes on from there:
OSLO — The Norwegian police on Saturday charged a man they identified as a right-wing fundamentalist Christian in connection with the bombing of a government building in central Oslo and a shooting attack on a nearby island that together killed at least 92 people.
"Right-wing" and "fundamentalist Christian" are words that require no hedging, no attribution; they are mere facts in the eyes of the Gray Lady's reporters and editors, whereas "left-wing" and "Muslim" are inflammatory statements that must be concealed from the world. Compare, for example, the NYT story two days ago on the arraignment of the Fort Hood shooter:
FORT HOOD, Tex. — Wearing a camouflage Army uniform and sitting upright in a wheelchair, the military psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people in a shooting rampage here appeared in court on Wednesday at his arraignment, without the civilian lawyer who had been his lead defense attorney.
He's a uniformed member of the U.S. Army! He's a military psychiatrist! Even his name is carefully pushed into the second paragraph because it gives away the unspeakable truth that he is not a right-wing fundamentalist Christian. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

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