The Society of Professional Journalists: Why We Never Get the Straight Story on Islamic Jihad

In case you've ever wondered why you never got the straight story on Islam directly after Sept. 11, and still haven't, and why the media seems in the tank for jihad, here's a clue.

The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) issued this directive a couple of weeks after 9/11; for sheer propaganda, their "Diversity Guidelines" are hard to beat.  In fact, the enemy who attacked our country in an attempt to bring it down may just as well have been writing the narrative.

The "guidelines," adopted at the Society's national convention on October 6, 2001, urges journalists to "take steps against racial profiling in their coverage of the war on terrorism and to reaffirm their commitment to use language that is informative and not inflammatory."

 

How?  Among other things:

Seek out people from a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds when photographing Americans mourning those lost in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

Seek truth through a variety of voices and perspectives that help audiences understand the complexities of the events in Pennsylvania, New York City and Washington, D.C.

Seek out experts on military strategies, public safety, diplomacy, economics and other pertinent topics who run the spectrum of race, class, gender and geography.

Regularly seek out a variety of perspectives for your opinion pieces. Check your coverage against the five Maynard Institute for Journalism Education fault lines of race and ethnicity, class, geography, gender and generation.

Translation: even if the horror, murder and bloodshed of jihad are inflammatory, don't tell the people.

There's more.

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