The Medusa Fora

NewJerseyRich wrote:Oh the dance the Lib media does to avoid the term "Islamic Extremist"

For those five years, the researchers found, Muslims carried out only 11 out of the 89 attacks, yet those attacks received 44 percent of the media coverage. (Meanwhile, 18 attacks actually targeted Muslims in America. The Boston marathon bombing generated 474 news reports, amounting to 20 percent of the media terrorism coverage during the period analyzed. Overall, the authors report, "The average attack with a Muslim perpetrator is covered in 90.8 articles. Attacks with a Muslim, foreign-born perpetrator are covered in 192.8 articles on average. Compare this with other attacks, which received an average of 18.1 articles."

Some non-Muslims did get intense coverage. Wade Michael Page, who killed six people in an attack on a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, generated 92 articles, or 3.8 percent of the dataset. Dylann Roof's murder of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, inspired 179 articles, or 7.4 percent. Robert Dear's slaying of three people at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs led to 204 articles, or 8.5 percent. Still, "Controlling for target type, fatalities, and being arrested, attacks by Muslim perpetrators received, on average, 449% more coverage than other attacks."

No doubt this greater media focus on Muslim perpetrators has badly skewed the public's—and Trump's—impressions about the sources of terrorist attacks in the U.S. On the other hand, the Georgia State researchers do not acknowledge an important difference between the purveyors of jihadist ideology and domestic racists like Page and Roof. ISIS and Al Qaeda are adroit publicists who have leveraged their relatively few attacks into successfully instilling a sense of terror into many Americans.

The Georgia State researchers conclude: "By covering terrorist attacks by Muslims dramatically more than other incidents, media frame this type of event as more prevalent. Based on these findings, it is no wonder that Americans are so fearful of radical Islamic terrorism. Reality shows, however, that these fears are misplaced."

Such fears are indeed misplaced. Your risk of being killed in a jihadist terror attack in the last 15 years amounted to roughly 1 in 2,640,000. Even if you stretch the period back to include 9/11, the risk would still just have been 1 in 110,000. Your lifetime risk of dying in a lightning strike is 1 in 161,000, and your chance of being killed in a motor vehicle crash is 1 in 114. Given that our government has already squandered more than $500 billion on homeland security, while encroaching on our liberties, it is vital that Americans keep the threat of terrorism in perspective. This new study is one small step in that direction.

DzM wrote:A reasonably timely piece from another Liberal Media Outlet, Reason (a well known Libertarian publication) about whether Muslims commit more acts of terrorism:

https://reason.com/archives/2017/03/24/ ... orist-atta

Mike from Boston wrote:I think everyone has made their points. And I do agree with Low D, God help him if the Vancouver Canucks lose a big game!!

DzM wrote:

NewJerseyRich wrote:Oh the dance the Lib media does to avoid the term "Islamic Extremist"

A reasonably timely piece from another Liberal Media Outlet, Reason (a well known Libertarian publication) about whether Muslims commit more acts of terrorism:

https://reason.com/archives/2017/03/24/ ... orist-atta

Select paragraphs (about 50% of the article):

For those five years, the researchers found, Muslims carried out only 11 out of the 89 attacks, yet those attacks received 44 percent of the media coverage. (Meanwhile, 18 attacks actually targeted Muslims in America. The Boston marathon bombing generated 474 news reports, amounting to 20 percent of the media terrorism coverage during the period analyzed. Overall, the authors report, "The average attack with a Muslim perpetrator is covered in 90.8 articles. Attacks with a Muslim, foreign-born perpetrator are covered in 192.8 articles on average. Compare this with other attacks, which received an average of 18.1 articles."

soulfinger wrote:

NewJerseyRich wrote:
Admittedly I don't know much about the British right. I'd say how many right wing attacks vs. Muslim extremist attacks were there in London over the last decade? For that matter how many Left wing attacks? Are there neighborhoods of right wingers where you can't travel through? If you think the right is a larger problem then Muslim Extremism I can't help you.

You could have stopped after much.

Mike from Boston wrote:Looks like another attack in Stockholm. Plus one of the casualties in London died, 31 year old Andreea Cristea, who had been rescued from the Thames.

DzM wrote:Jeez. The tragedies keep hitting London.

Stay strong, friends.