Tag Archives: journalism

VOX Smears And Endangers Muslim Reformers

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I recently set my sights on Max Fisher over at VOX for stoking religious and racial tensions with his piece on three murdered ‘Muslims’. Not to mention his completely unfounded claims that Craig Hicks ‘expressed a paranoid hatred of religion’. Where did he express this? When?

Since publication, it turns out that one of the three murdered Muslims was actually a Christian and the police have also ruled out the possibility of a hate crime. I’ve yet to hear a response from Max Fisher or VOX about this, or learn of a correction being made to the false information they are currently spreading.

Even as a staunch critic of Islam, I think it’s irresponsible and foolish to assume everything a Muslim does is because they are a Muslim. Likewise, I would hope that others are also able to understand that not everything that happens to a Muslim is because they are a Muslim either. I’d rather wait on the facts than blow a trumpet in a concerto of uniformed noise.

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What’s Your Source For That @Max_Fisher?

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Over at VOX, Max Fisher reports on the mysterious deaths of three Muslims in Indiana [UPDATE 02 Mar 2016: Turns out one of the three victims was actually a Christian. Hate crime also ‘ruled out’ by the police]. He engages in some rhetorical throat clearing about not jumping to conclusions, before going on to irresponsibly link it to the Chapel Hill murders. An angle must be found I suppose.

Within the article, Fisher claims that Craig Hicks ‘expressed a paranoid hatred of religion’. My question would be: What is your source for that claim, Max? I’ve reached out on Twitter a couple of times, but have been ignored thus far.

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CJ Werleman Can’t Be A Journalist – If Facts and Evidence Matter

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Image Credit: https://atheistsunited.org/

Image Credit: https://atheistsunited.org/

It’s been a devastatingly embarrassing six months for author and columnist CJ Werleman. Exposed for misrepresentation, serial plagiarism and probable sockpuppetry – and this was all before Sam Harris effortlessly spanked his ill-judged libellous accusations. Both Salon and Alternet dropped Werleman as a result, the latter completely removing his articles from their archives altogether. The only platform still willing to publish him is Middle East Eye. It’s a self-immolation that is painful to look at – yet I can’t seem to help myself.

You’d imagine this period would have been a good time for Werleman to put down the spade and contemplate where his career was heading. He appears to have dropped the spade and upgraded to a JCB digger however, committed to hacking his way downward – ethically.

I’d like to provide you with a few examples that distinguish a Journalist from a Propagandist.

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Quinn Norton Implodes – In The Interest Of Clarity

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After the recent confusion caused by a statement heard on BBC Newsnight that “Men are raised to hate women” I decided to ask the journalist responsible for an explanation.

The outcome was unexpected and inspired me to pen this blog post, which in turn led to in my view, unfairly, hours of bizarre accusations from a tiny number of individuals

1Although the overwhelming majority of (I realise this is not indicative of being right) people seemed to agree that clarification was necessary, and the initial statement was too much of a generalisation to be helpful to say the least, the very small number who did take issue with me seemed to fall in to two camps.

Some argued that the statement was perfectly reasonable and not deserving of question.  And that it was actually my lack of understanding that was the real problem, or the manner in which I questioned.

Others seemingly fell afoul of a catastrophic inability to differentiate between the following two statements, (one genuine, one imagined):

“What exactly do you mean by that?  Please explain”

And

“Sexism and misogyny are not genuine problems in society”.

I could not attempt a defence of the second statement, even if I were stupid enough to actually believe it, or want to.

Obviously there are a lot of good people who feel incredibly passionate about sexism and misogyny for incredibly valid reasons (captain obvious) and may have felt I was somehow denying the importance or existence of these issues.  As explainable as this perception may be on some level, it is not even remotely accurate to anything I have said, implied or argued.

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