Abstract Researchers who monitor hate propaganda have watched The Spotlight expandits emphasis from stories about Zionist banking conspiracies and the "myth"of the Holocaust to favorable coverage of the militias and neo-Nazi groupslike the Aryan Nation. "The Spotlight fosters and promotes and reflects themilitia's worldview," says one researcher of contemporary fascistmovements. The Spotlight is "a bridge between the racialist right and theparamilitary right and the far right in Congress." [ Next | Previous | July '95 | FAIR | Mail/Suggest | Index ] Extra! July/August 1995
Jul
01
1995
Homophobia, Racism and Sexism?
The Connections Are Clear to Far Right
After the Oklahoma City bombing, the New York Times (4/24/95) reported surprise at the existence of right-wing terror-gangs: "New Images of Terror... A suspect, a white drifter, evokes new fear." But right-wing terror is hardly surprising to those who’ve been on the receiving end of it over the years; nor would the pale image of the suspect have been "new" to mainstream readers if media had been doing their job covering hate crimes. There were 2,064 homophobia-motivated acts of violence in nine U.S. cities last year; according to New York’s Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, anti-gay hate crimes are the [...]
Jul
01
1995
TV Lets Corporations Pull Green Wool Over Viewers' Eyes
By Jay Letto
"How come the cars on television commercials can't seem to find the road?" my Aunt Sue asked me a couple of years ago. Indeed, TV cars and trucks are found splashing through creeks, climbing rocky slopes, parked in wetlands, invading deserts and even perched on needlelike pinnacles, but rarely are they shown actually driving down a road. Chevrolet took this so far a few years ago that one of its print ads, with the title "Wetlands Conservation," proudly proclaimed, "Chevy S-10 Blazer 4-Door. It takes to wetlands like a duck to water." TV watchers everywhere must be similarly confused with [...]
Jul
01
1995
Islam: Fundamental Misunderstandings About a Growing Faith
By Sam Husseini
There are approximately 5 million Muslims in the U.S. -- nearly as many as there are Jews, and more than there are Episcopalians. Early in the next century, Islam will probably be the largest non-Christian religion in the country (L.A. Times, 12/17/94). Yet there's rarely a mention of Muslims in the media that doesn't have to do with violence. In day-to-day coverage, they are largely absent; Muslim festivals like Ramadan often come and go with little note. The media is so full of reports on the "Islamic threat" from "radical Muslim terrorists" plotting "Islamic fundamentalist violence," one could excuse the [...]
Jul
01
1995
The 'Experts' Speak
Some of the most cited anti-terrorism sources--and their “credentials”
Steve Emerson: Emerson is a journalist (late of U.S. News & World Report and CNN) noted for his anonymous U.S. and Israeli intelligence sources (Extra!, 10-11/92, 11-12/93). These sources led him to announce, in the wake of the World Trade Center explosion, that the "bomber or bombers may be from one of the former Yugoslav republics." (CNN, 3/2/93) That embarrassing error did not teach him caution: When the Murrah federal building was bombed, he immediately began insisting that all signs pointed to Muslim extremists. There’s more than a little bigotry in Emerson’s obsession with Muslim terrorists. To him, the fact [...]
