On Sunday, August 8, the New York Times ran a front-page article by Laurie Goodstein entitled “Across Nation, Mosque Projects Meet Opposition.”   Three days prior to the publication of the story, Ms. Goodstein contacted ACT! for America president Brigitte Gabriel to get her comments for the story.

It was clear from the questions Ms. Goodstein asked that the newspaper was planning to re-frame the opposition to the mosque at Ground Zero into an “Americans are opposing mosques everywhere” narrative.

Such a narrative is an expression of the political left’s worldview that opposing the mosque at Ground Zero is motivated by bigotry and intolerance.  By recasting the debate as one where “opposition to mosques everywhere proves Muslims are being denied religious freedom,” rather than “Americans are concerned about the location of the mosque at Ground Zero,” the New York Times and its friends in the media are trying desperately to stem a growing and understandable tide of opposition to the Ground Zero mosque.

Of course, the Times’ narrative isn’t true.  It referred to three locations where so-called “mosque controversies” have occurred – hardly a battle “Across [the] Nation,” as the article headline states. There are approximately 100 mosques in New York and at least 2,500 mosques nationwide, virtually all of which encountered no opposition.  One pastor in Tennessee told us that plans for his church expansion received far more scrutiny from the local government than did the proposal for a mosque in the area.  But since when have the facts gotten in the way of a narrative the New York Times wants to peddle? (more…)

Reporters may think they’re being objective and balanced when they first report and then write a story, but those of us who know the racket can spot a rigged stuss game every time.  It’s not just a matter of what you put in and what you leave out, whom you talk to and whom you don’t bother to ask for comment.

It’s also the way the story is structured, and the little semiotic signals the writer (and/or editor) send to the reader that say this is what is important.  This is whom you should believe.

For Exhibit A of this process, please consider the following story:

Across Nation, Mosque Projects Meet Opposition

Given that this is the New York Times, you know the paper disapproves of this phenomenon, just like its nasty little lifestyle-fascist mayor, Mike Bloomberg, a Boston-born billionaire who finagled his way around term limits in order keep a hold on Gracie Mansion. It’s Bloomberg who’s been helping to fast-track the Ground Zero mosque and therefore who, in part, is responsible for the national backlash the Times now chronicles:

In all of the recent conflicts, opponents have said their problem is Islam itself. They quote passages from the Koran and argue that even the most Americanized Muslim secretly wants to replace the Constitution with Islamic Shariah law.

These local skirmishes make clear that there is now widespread debate about whether the best way to uphold America’s democratic values is to allow Muslims the same religious freedom enjoyed by other Americans, or to pull away the welcome mat from a faith seen as a singular threat.

Threat? Where would anybody get that idea?

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