Media 'Cringe' That Mass Killer a Muslim Since It 'Inflames' Right Wing, 'That Makes It Much Worse'

Newsweek's Evan Thomas regretted the Fort Hood mass murderer, Major Nidal Hasan, is a Muslim because of how that reality will be abused by conservatives. On this weekend's Inside Washington, Thomas, now Editor at Large with Newsweek after stints as Assistant Managing Editor and Washington bureau chief, rued:

I cringe that he's a Muslim. I mean, because it inflames all the fears. I think he's probably just a nut case. But with that label attached to him, it will get the right wing going and it just -- I mean these things are tragic, but that makes it much worse.

NPR's Nina Totenberg soon chimed in with agreement: “It really is tragic that he was a Muslim.”

Audio: MP3 clip

The weekly Inside Washington is produced by Washington, DC's ABC affiliate, WJLA-DT which runs it on Sunday morning, but it's first aired Friday nights on the PBS station and is carried several times by the DC-area all-news cable channel, NewsChannel 8.