In the interview below, Fox News Lauren Green is interviewing the author of a new book on Jesus Christ. However, Green appears to be incapable of getting over that academic/author Reza Aslan is a Muslim. While Fox and the other networks routinely interview Christian and Jewish experts on Islam (including highly biased authors), it appears inconceivable that a Muslim would ever write a book on Christianity.
Ironically, Aslan once converted to Christianity and then converted back to Islam. However, it is his current religion that seems to be the stumbling block for Green:
GREEN: This is an interesting book. Now I want to clarify, you’re a Muslim, so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?
ASLAN: Well to be clear, I am a scholar of religions with four degrees — including one in the New Testament, and fluency in biblical Greek, who has been studying the origins of Christianity for two decades — who also just happens to be a Muslim. So it’s not that I’m just some Muslim writing about Jesus, I am an expert with a Ph.D in the history of religions…
GREEN: But it still begs the question why would you be interested in the founder of Christianity?
ASLAN: Because it’s my job as an academic. I am a professor of religion, including the New Testament. That’s what I do for a living, actually.
The interview repeatedly return to his religion as the most interesting aspect of the interview. It is a highly disturbing interview and a powerful example of how Muslims face double standards in their treatment in the media.
oh? where have these christians been blowing up people in acts of religion based terrorism?
orolee 1, July 30, 2013 at 11:11 am
getreal: “What other religions in the last 20 years or so, have followers that routinely blow up innocent women and children in acts of terrorism.”
U.S. fundamentalist Christian religions
David sez: “…When I go to Media Matters, it seems like a hate group. Hate for Fox News. Hate for Conservatives. Hate for Rush Limbaugh….”
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Projection much, David? After she testified before a Congressional committee about making birth control affordable for poor women, Rush called law student Sandra Fluke ’round heeled,’ a ‘slut’ and a ‘prostitute’ just to name three specific sexist slurs. In about thirty seconds of Google search, I came up with 46 direct quotes (with dates) of his sexist attacks on Ms. Fluke. To call them hateful is too kind a word for that sort of piggish behavior. There appeared to be a lot more than than, but got tired of counting.
Then there was the matter of mocking Michael J. Fox for having Parkinson’s Disease. Parkinson’s Disease is not a laughing matter, and those of us who know or love people with the disorder found his remarks beyond hateful. They were sadistic.
I could go on about Rushbo, but need to get back to work. BTW, I see that he is being dropped by Cumulus Media because advertisers have been fleeing him in droves. CM is also dropping Sean Hannity. But never fear, both are being picked up by Clear Channel. And who are the primary owners of Clear Channel, pray tell? Why, Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners, of course. You don’t think the super rich would let their boys drown in a sea of unpaid bills, do you?
As for Fox “News.” They are the public propaganda outlet for the Republican Party, the ultra-rich right wing, and Christianist fundies. When you call the media watchdog group Media Matters a hate organization, I am reminded of the famous comment by President Truman back in 1948:
I don’t hate conservatives. I am pretty conservative myself. However, I am quite progressive on social issues. When I was a kid I learned all the parables of Jesus and thought they were great reminders of one’s responsibilities in a civilized society.
OS wrote: “I don’t hate conservatives.”
Yeah, I just feel your love for conservatives oozing from your pores with that last post.
OS wrote: “Rush called law student Sandra Fluke ’round heeled,’ a ‘slut’ and a ‘prostitute’ just to name three specific sexist slurs.”
I happened to listen to Rush Limbaugh the day he committed this so-called offense. It is a gross misrepresentation to say he called her any of those names. Rush basically led his audience through the logic of a single 30 year old co-ed attending an expensive private university who complains to Congress about the government not paying her to be able to have sex without reproductive results. What do we call a girl who wants someone else to pay for her to have sex? We call that person a slut, don’t we? That kind of co-ed is called a prostitute, isn’t it? Isn’t that what society calls this kind of person who wants someone else to pay so she can have as much sex as she wants with whomever she wants to have it? Now wait a minute, so what does that make us, the ones who are paying for her to have sex? Well, I guess we are the Johns. No, we aren’t having sex with her, so we aren’t the Johns. We are paying, so I guess we are the pimps. Maybe pimp is not the right word… okay, I take it back, she is not a slut then.
These are not his exact words. I don’t have time to research this for you, but the point is that over the length of hours, he was basically being humorous and outlining the logic of what we the taxpayers are expected to do for Sandra Fluke. He was not yelling out epithets or expressing hatred toward Sandra Fluke. He did not scream, “That woman is a slut!” No, he used no pejoratives like the leftist media portrayed him to do. His focus was on her argument, not the person of Sandra Fluke. He led his audience through the logic of it. We are expected to pay for this single woman to have as much sex as she likes without the consequence of reproduction. She complains to Congress, expecting us to be her pimp, so-to-speak. She is paying something like $70,000 a year to attend George Washington University (Tuition alone is $40K), and the average starting salary for a graduate from there is something like $136,000 a year. But she can’t afford her own birth control, and she feels it is owed to her from the rest of us. It is kind of absurd.
You may not like his analogy, but I personally found it a very fitting dialogue and very funny. It is too bad so many people on the left have to get so emotional over it. I wouldn’t mind the emotion so much if they were just honest about it, but as you illustrate here, no honesty is allowed. The facts have to be twisted to make someone appear to be as evil a person as possible. But that’s not hatred, no.
My last post to RTC got lost. Guess I’m posting too much. 🙂 Maybe a moderator can try to free it.
Hang in there, Oro!
Blousie: “orolee, A gentle smile coming your way …”
Thank you. I received grievous news late last night. Your words may have brought the only smile I will know today.
getreal: “What other religions in the last 20 years or so, have followers that routinely blow up innocent women and children in acts of terrorism.”
U.S. fundamentalist Christian religions
RTC,
Regarding dumbing down the news. If you read that study, you will see that other news outlets did not fare much better than Fox. Of course, Fox was lowest on the list of being informative, with only NPR doing reasonably well.
The invention of the Chyron machine and improved computer graphics went a long way toward turning news reporting into an entertainment medium. Walter Cronkite and the Huntley-Brinkley Report did a great job of informing with factual reporting. Having a good news department budget and gifted reporters out in the field made it possible. People who watched news presenters trained by Edward R. Murrow, aka “Murrow’s Boys,” got honest to goodness news reporting. Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley did it without fancy graphics, scrolls or flashing screens. I am sure the chances of someone like Roger Ailes (and his counterparts on other networks) hiring reporters like that is about the same as hell freezing over.
I highly recommend Bob Edward’s book, Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism (Turning Points in History). It does not take much imagination to know what Murrow would have to say about the present state of entertainment that pretends to be news.
Bob Edwards is a student of Murrow. I read somewhere that he was hard for NPR management to deal with as an employee, but his on-air stuff was top notch. He did not talk over guests, but got the information in a fair and unbiased way. There was one interview that lasted a good five minutes, and word count revealed that Bob Edwards spoke exactly 77 words during that interview. Just enough to keep the guest on topic and talking.
David,
One last comment on Fox, if you’re still following this post: Fox is responsible for a general dumbing down of the journalistic reporting overall, as the different outlets try to outfox Fox, as it were, for viewership and readers
RTC wrote: “Fox is responsible for a general dumbing down of the journalistic reporting overall…”
I don’t see it that way. They certainly are not worse at it than the other news organizations. When the Zimmerman trial was going on, CNN was glued to covering it, but Fox was more involved with other stories. That’s not “dumbing down” reporting.
When I go to Media Matters, it seems like a hate group. Hate for Fox News. Hate for Conservatives. Hate for Rush Limbaugh. Everything is geared toward stereotyping others and often misrepresenting them. That creates a much different environment than Fox News, which although they call Media Matters on the carpet from time to time, for the most part they just present the liberal viewpoint right along with a conservative viewpoint and let the viewers decide which is most persuasive. Sometimes I agree with the conservative. Sometimes I agree with the liberal.
While we are on the subject its also time to start holding Israel accountable for being terrorists themselves as well as dragging us into their fights. Personally If I had it my way Id cut off all funding and support.
Israel has more spies in this country than China does.
We should bar anyone coming into the country from every state that has ties to terrorism. That includes places like Egypt and Saudia Arabia. Only people that should be allowed to visit should have to pass background checks and have strict short term visas for vacations or business.
Violators should be deported and barred from ever returning and forced to sell any US holdings.
DavidM,
You’re attempting to use the meaning of trust interchangeably with reliability, and it simply isn’t the case. Media watchdogs like Media Matters routinely document inaccurate, nonfactual reporting by Fox. Nearly every time a member of the Republican party gets caught in a scandal, the Fox title banners have them labeled as Democratic. Fox is the result of Nixon’s idea of using a broadcast news outlet to function as a propaganda tool for the Repubs.
If more people do indeed trust Fox News, then it’s probably because Fox is telling them what they want to hear, like climate change doesn’t exist or social policies that address poverty do nothing but breed laziness and create more poverty. Look at the frenzy that took place over Nate Silver’s election forecasts during the last election; you guys excoriated him because you wanted hear that the race was closer. Turns out he was spot on, which is why your typical Fox Snoozer dislikes and distrusts with increasing vehemence. I think you could find polls indicating more pepole trust comic books than newspapers these days.
RTC wrote: “You’re attempting to use the meaning of trust interchangeably with reliability, and it simply isn’t the case. Media watchdogs like Media Matters routinely document inaccurate, nonfactual reporting by Fox.”
Many poll reports use the word “reliable” as well as “trust” interchangeably. The terms, though technically different, are somewhat related. Consider this report of a poll by Huffington Post, where the title says Fox More Reliable Than CNN, MSNBC.
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/huffpo-poll-fox-more-reliable-than-cnn-msnbc#.UffgntLvii0
Or look at this poll posted on democratic underground that says 72% say that Fox News is more reliable:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104×66525
As for Media Matters, I guess you don’t realize that Fox News points out the false reporting by Media Matters. It is a common joke there, how Media Matters routinely misleads people into believing false information. Bill O’Reilly always jabs at them, and invites guests on who have believed Media Matters on some errant idea of what He said or what Fox News said about something. He then shows them how they were believing a completely false report. This is part of what makes Fox News interesting to watch, the fact that they actually invite people over from the other side of the aisle, to discuss and debate. I pay attention to all sources, and my sense is that Media Matters gets facts wrong way more often than Fox News does. The problem is that they focus on being critical of statements, often misinterpreting what they read. It is easy to be a critic, but a little harder to convey actual information in a meaningful way. In any case, all the news networks make mistakes trying to get some juicy news out there before everybody else, but Media Matters is really bad about getting it wrong and about never retracting the statement or making an apology to those hurt by it.
RTC wrote: “I think you could find polls indicating more people trust comic books than newspapers these days.”
LOL. You are right about that. When I was young, journalists were taught not to take sides, to be objective, there were actual standards of journalism. Now, journalism is all about entertainment or changing society through some juicy story. The truth doesn’t matter. What truth? It is all relative now. There is no truth.
What other religions in the last 20 years or so, have followers that routinely blow up innocent women and children in acts of terrorism.
I never said we shouldn’t be discussing religion. I was pointing out that theology is irrelevant to this conversation.
Here is more background on Ms. Green and her style of “reporting” stories about Muslims in the news. As far as anyone can recall, she has not reported a single story on positive accomplishments of Muslims. Perhaps those kinds of stories are not deemed newsworthy. If a purported news station only reported news that consistently placed Christians and Jews in a negative light, those groups would be breaking out the torches and pitchforks.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/07/29/fox-reporter-lauren-greens-double-standard-on-r/195114
Also, Ms. Green may have forgotten completely about the Law of Unintended Consequences. The following is copied and pasted directly from the Amazon.com web page for Reza’s book, “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth.”
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1 in Books
Lauren Green has a history of negative reporting on stories involving the Muslim faith. As I wrote earlier, Fox dumbs down the news stories to the point where one knows less after seeing the segment than if they had not watched it at all. She is incapable of a fair and unbiased interview. Reza Aslan is only the latest to be caught in the disinformation campaign. The fish rots from the head down, and this reporting philosophy and technique comes directly from Roger Ailes, aka, Jabb the Hutt. Rolling Stone did a story on Ailes and his background which pulled back the veil somewhat. The comments that follow this story about the incident in Media Matters are better than the story itself. Most commenters seem to be bright and insightful.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/07/29/reza-aslan-and-how-fox-news-islamophobia-comes/195097
Truly S. (@hotincleveland),
East or West side? I’m west.