Over the past several weeks, 28 million copies of an anti-Muslim propaganda film, Obsession, have been delivered to the doorsteps of newspaper subscribers in swing states.
Unfortunately, as a new report by FAIR documents, the media’s complicity in smearing an entire religious group goes far beyond the role of the 70 newspapers that participated in the distribution of the Obsession DVD.
FAIR’s report, ‘Smearcasting: How Islamophobes Spread Fear, Bigotry and Misinformation,‘ profiles 12 top anti-Muslim pundits who regularly use misinformation and innuendo to broadcast hate against Muslims. From talk radio host Michael Savage openly advocating killing 100 million Muslims to CNN’s Glenn Beck stating that Muslims ‘will be looking through a razor wire fence at the West’ within 10 years, the report unmasks the pundits who have done the most to spread anti-Muslim fear and bigotry in the media.
Other members of the report’s “dirty dozen” list include talkshow hosts Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity; activists like Michelle Malkin, Daniel Pipes and David Horowitz; and influential writers like Mark Steyn and Robert Spencer.
Notably, some of the leading members of this network have gone well beyond outrageous statements. From Pipes’ campaign against the principal of an Arabic-language public school in New York City, whom he erroneously painted as an extremist, to Malkin’s crusade against a Dunkin Donuts ad featuring a scarf that Malkin dubbed a ‘symbol of the murderous Palestinian jihad,’ the leading Islamophobic pundits have also translated their hateful message into action.
The full report is available for download at www.smearcasting.com.
