After Wave of Pro-Muslim PR, NY Times Buries UNC Attack

March 8th, 2006 11:30 AM

Is only positive news about American Muslims fit to highlight?

After issuing this week a massive three-part series with a glowing portrait of the imam of a Brooklyn mosque (while glossing over his sympathies for the terrorist group Hamas), Wednesday's Times buries on page 18 attempted murder by a radical Islamist looking for revenge against Americans.

Brenda Goodman’s “Defendant Offers Details Of Jeep Attack at University,” details what happened on the campus of the University of North Carolina but, like the headline, leaves off some pertinent data.

Notice how the Times blandly summarizes things.

“The man charged with nine counts of attempted murder for driving a Jeep through a crowd at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill last Friday told the police that he deliberately rented a four-wheel-drive vehicle so he could ‘run over things and keep going,’ according to court papers released yesterday by investigators. Details in the search warrant for the Carrboro, N.C., apartment of the defendant, Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, suggest that he had planned his actions for months and was disappointed the attack had not done more damage. None of the nine people who were struck by the Jeep Grand Cherokee as they were standing in a campus commons area known as the Pit were seriously injured.


“According to statements taken by the police, Mr. Taheri-azar, 22, an Iranian-born graduate of the university, felt that the United States government had been ‘killing his people across the sea’ and that his actions reflected ‘an eye for an eye.’”

Which people, exactly? The Times doesn’t say. For that, you have to look at the local coverage in Chapel Hill. The national “paper of record” doesn’t even use the term Muslim in the story, even though the suspect told the police the attack was to "avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world."

Only in the very last line does Goodman cite the Associated Press quoting Taheri-azar as being "thankful for the opportunity to spread the will of Allah."

For more examples of New York Times bias, visit Times Watch.