No news is good news

Journalism has power.

It has the power to unify a nation behind a cause (9/11), uncover the ugly side of a war (Vietnam), dissolve a presidency (Nixon), and now, bring attention to someone who shouldn't have it.

Last summer, Florida pastor Terry Jones announced he was going to burn a copy of the Qur'an on the anniversary of Sept. 11.

In a tweet.

He started a Facebook group for International Burn a Qur'an Day and claimed it was a book "full of lies."

And the news, stupidly, covered it.

The man is, excuse my language, a dumbass. His church, the Dove World Outreach Center, includes just 50 families. He calls himself a man of god sticking up for Christianity and carrying out the will of god. He seems to have forgotten that we all have the same god. Even if you don't believe in one universal spirit, Islam and Christianity are both Abrahamic religions so they have virtually the same base.

In a time when we're at war, particularly with people of this race and religion, this man decided to stir the pot even more. Again, dumbass.

After worldwide protests and an absurd amount of meetings and negotiations, Jones finally decided to withhold from burning the book.

On Sept. 11, Jones said on the Today Show that his church would never burn a Qur'an.

He lied.

On March 20, he burned a Qur'an live on the Internet. And the news, smartly, didn't cover it. Unfortunately for pretty much everyone, it was already out there, and it was the video seen 'round the world.

Thanks to this extremist dumbnut, violent riots have broken out in Afghanistan, among other countries, where so far 20 people have been killed, seven of which were UN workers.

Twenty people are DEAD because of riots sparked by this man that so ironically calls himself a pastor.

So here's the issue. Is this man, who decided he was going to burn a book, news? Someone originally thought he was, and the story caught on. Unfortunately, people were then interested in him and he gained the attention he craved. The news gave that to him.

I think now, considering the backlash, the media understands that it may have been a mistake to cover this crazed man in the first place.

Also, when 9/11 happened, Americans had to accept that the attackers were extremists, and not typical Muslims; that the terrorists were under the power of bin Laden, and not acting in a way that would represent the general views of Islam.

Now, when the tables have turned, are people abroad accepting that Jones is an extremist, and not an average American or Christian?

I do realize that the two incidents are extremely different, and thousands were killed in 2001, while it was "just a book" that was sacrificed in March. I also realize that it has taken 10 years for Americans to even somewhat accept Islam.

Even furthur, I recognize the irony in the fact that I am giving Terry Jones even more attention. Hopefully the profound amount of people that read my blog are connected to neither Jones nor violent protesters in the Middle East.

The point is, journalism can do good. It can also cause unrest. In order to keep journalistic credibility, all news has to be covered. This one, however, I believe could have gone unreported.

I'm headed to UNC-Chapel Hill next year to continue my study of journalism, and I'm excited for the opportunity to do something with my writing someday. Hopefully causing more good than unrest.



In my Newspaper Management class yesterday we reviewed this article written by my professor. It's similar to what I wrote, just with years and years of journalistic experience behind it.

Also, most of this information came from the Chicago Tribune, mostly this article.