This article is the overview of FAIR's study, "Smearcasting, How Islamophobes Spread Bigotry, Fear and Misinformation." Visit the report's special micro-site at www.smearcasting.com or click here to download the full report. In the 1990 Polish elections a whispering campaign suggesting that Polish Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, a Roman Catholic, was a “secret Jew” attracted widespread attention in the U.S. press, as did a nearly identical rumor about the leading challenger in Poland’s 1995 election. In no uncertain terms, U.S. news reports called the rumors “ugly examples” (Washington Post, 12/31/90) of the “increasingly visible expressions of anti-Semitism” (New York Times, 1/21/91), [...]
Search Results for: Steve Rendall and Isabel Macdonald
Nov
01
2008
Making Islamophobia Mainstream
How Muslim-bashers broadcast their bigotry
This article is the overview of FAIR's study, "Smearcasting, How Islamophobes Spread Bigotry, Fear and Misinformation." Visit the report's special micro-site at www.smearcasting.com or click here to download the full report. A remarkable thing happened at the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) nominations in February 2007: The normally highbrow and tolerant group nominated for best book in the field of criticism a work widely viewed as denigrating an entire religion. The nomination of Bruce Bawer’s While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam Is Destroying the West From Within didn’t pass without controversy. Past nominee Eliot Weinberger denounced the book at the [...]
Oct
10
2008
David Cay Johnston on meltdown/bailout, Isabel MacDonald & Steve Rendall on 'Smearcasting,' FAIR's Islamophobia report
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The bailout story turns again as Congress passes the White House's bailout bill. Will reporters give up questioning the plan entirely now that it has that holy grail of "bipartisan support"? We'll hear from one journalist who's been calling for skepticism from the beginning--author and reporter David Cay Johnston, recently retired from the New York Times. Also on the show: "Smearcasting: How Islamophobes Spread Fear, Bigotry and Misinformation," is the name of a just-released report by FAIR that looks at how America's leading Islamophobes--who the report dubs "The Dirty Dozen"--are able to spread their [...]
Oct
01
2008
Smearcasting
How Islamophobes spread fear, bigotry and misinformation
http://www.smearcasting.us/FAIR_Smearcasting_Final.pdf Smearcasting: How Islamophobes spread fear, bigotry and misinformation By FAIR October 2008 Researched and written by Steve Rendall, Isabel Macdonald, Veronica Cassidy and Dina Marguerite Jacir Edited by Julie Hollar and Jim Naureckas Smearcasting: Table of Contents Making Islamophobia Mainstream: How Muslim-bashers broadcast their bigotry 4 The Dirty Dozen: Who’s Who Among America’s Leading Islamophobes 8 David Horowitz 8 Robert Spencer 8 Daniel Pipes 10 Michael Savage 10 Pat Robertson 11 Sean Hannity 11 Bill O’Reilly 12 Mark Steyn 13 Steve Emerson 14 Michelle Malkin 14 Glenn Beck 15 Debbie Schlussel 16 Case Studies 18 Islamofascism: A fringe term [...]
Oct
01
2008
Michelle Malkin Cooks Up Terrorist Donuts
This article is part of FAIR's study, "Smearcasting, How Islamophobes Spread Bigotry, Fear and Misinformation." Visit the report's special micro-site at www.smearcasting.com or click here to download the full report. Even the world of celebrity fashion is not spared by the Islamophobic smear machine. In May 2008, right-wing blogger Michelle Malkin accused celebrity chef Rachael Ray of sporting a "regular adornment of Muslim terrorists" (Town Hall, 5/28/08) in a Dunkin' Donuts ad. In the ad, Ray wore a black-and-white scarf resembling a keffiyeh, a traditional item of Arab clothing. Malkin characterized Ray's scarf as a "jihadi chic keffiyeh" and a [...]
Oct
01
2008
Daniel Pipes' Witch Hunt at a Public School
This article is part of FAIR's study, "Smearcasting, How Islamophobes Spread Bigotry, Fear and Misinformation." Visit the report's special micro-site at www.smearcasting.com or click here to download the full report. In September 2007, the Khalil Gibran International Academy, named for the noted Lebanese Christian poet, became the country's first public school focused on Arabic language and culture. According to the New York Department of Education (Brooklyn Eagle, 7/30/07) the school was using "the same curriculum packages as other New York City public schools," and the chancellor of schools emphasized (Christian Science Monitor, 6/1/07) that its curriculum would be subject to [...]
Oct
01
2008
The Dirty Dozen
Who's who among America's leading Islamophobes
This article is part of FAIR's study "Smearcasting: How Islamophobes Spread Bigotry, Fear and Misinformation." Bigots aren’t born, and hate doesn’t spring up on its own; as the song says, “You’ve got to be carefully taught.” The following list includes some of the media’s leading teachers of anti-Muslim bigotry, serving various roles in the Islamophobic movement. Some write the books that serve as intellectual fodder, others serve as promoters, others play the roles of provocateurs and rabble-rousers. Some ply their bigotry in the media’s mainstream, others in the Internet’s tributaries, while still others work talk radio’s backwaters. Together with uncounted [...]
Oct
01
2008
Islamofascism
A fringe term goes mainstream, with a little help from the media
This article is part of FAIR's study, "Smearcasting, How Islamophobes Spread Bigotry, Fear and Misinformation." Visit the report's special micro-site at www.smearcasting.com or click here to download the full report. The term "Islamofascism" came into common use after the September 2001 attacks as a favorite way for neoconservatives to describe the ideology of extremist and violent groups such as Al-Qaeda that claim to act in the name of Islam. A search of the Nexis database shows just two mentions of the term before 2001, both in British media. The first (Independent, 9/8/90) came in a remark by writer Malise Ruthven [...]
