"The leader of 50 racist shitheads got more press than all the anti war protests in 2003!"

[KoKo]

Our pal Lizz Winstead, Daily Show co-founder, tweets: "The leader of 50 racist shitheads got more press than all the anti war protests in 2003."

from Gregg Mitchell's "Media Fix" column..

http://www.thenation.com/blog/154619/daybook-friday-koran-story-burns-media-more-wikileaks-springsteen-rising-again-dadt-bann

[gratuitous]

1. Yupper smucker

But you'll never see an analysis on why that might be from the popular media. Millions marching in the streets against Bush's excellent foreign adventure? Yawn. Okay, here's some footage of a guy in rainbow fright wig, if you really must. Lying dumbass threatens to burn a book in Florida? Christmas, Fourth of July and Cinco de Mayo all rolled into one!

[Land Shark]

11. The regrets in the MSM over this level of attention will be used to keep this Contrast going... nt

[KoKo]

14. "Regrets"...that's the thing...they are falling over themselves about the "pastor" in Gainsville, FL

who interestingly was allowed to preach his cultism in Cologne, German for years!

[ananda]

2. PR is so important.

nt

[Land Shark]

3. almost undoubtedly true (and now they're talking about cutting off future coverage of "extremists"

so, they needn't honor this as precedent for anybody else's speech that might be depicted as "extremist" like protesters.

[A wise Man]

40. with the exception of...

Sarah Palin...Glenn Beck...Rush Limpballs....Michelle Bachshit...Mick Savage...Fox... etc. These assholes want riots in the streets as they run and hide.

[Submariner]

4. War protesters are considered godless freaks

But this guy has the same god as republican teabagger party has, so as far as they're concerned, only a divine intervention can stop this because the burning has their god's blessing.

It's called ignorance.

[SoCalDem]

7. and whenever they were covered, it was to highlight the ones with

scruffy beards & papier-mâché puppets.. The media's take on MILLIONS of people in the streets, was ..."some aging hippies & scraggly unemployed young people seemed "upset" about something or other..and weren't their signs rude to President Bush".. move along......nothing to see here:(

[KoKo]

15. yep...it's the truth of it.. but Jones is not so photogenic himself...yet they are all over him...

It does cause one to wonder about our "media."

[still_one]

5. This is the most perfect statement of the state of journalism today than anything else /nt

[LuckyLib]

13. How Rev. Jones makes the front page -- a great analysis of the death of literacy and

critical thinking in our culture:

Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle by Chris Hedges

[KoKo]

16. Empire of Illusion is a very interesting read.......

I know some folks think that Chris Hedges is a "downer" for a read. But, he's a truthteller and a visionary. Most of those folks used to get "beheaded, burned at the stake or taken out by gun or sword" in earlier times or in these times...have to watch their backs.

[Swamp Rat]

22. There's also John Lukacs's book, "At the End of an Age"

Also a downer to read.

[Redstone]

6. Only in America.

Redstone

[Seedersandleechers]

34. No, not only in America.

As I've been watching the news here in the UK I have watched repeatedly the story of this Florida preacher.

[Demeter]

8. It Kills, Doesn't It?

How many million protested the Iraqi invasion, around the world? 80 Million in the streets, 100 times that at home at least...

But get one nutjob and a press agent, and it's all over the media and fires are set and people killed.

[Blue Owl]

9. Ladies and Gentlemen, your mainstream media!

Your sold-out, corrupt, shitstream media.

[IndianaGreen]

10. German newspaper exposes Terry Jones as another Jim Jones

US fundamentalist pastor Terry Jones, who wants to burn copies of the Koran on Sept. 11, ran a church in the western German city of Cologne until last year when members of the congregation expelled him. Former members have spoken of his hate-filled sermons and insistence on "blind obedience."

Islamophobe's Past in Germany

Terry Jones Accused of 'Spiritual Abuse' at Cologne Church

By Yassin Musharbash and Dominik Peters

'Delusional Personality'

Former church members are still undergoing therapy as a result of "spiritual abuse," Schäfer said. According to Schäfer, Jones urged church members to beat their children with a rod and also taught "a distinctive demonology" and conducted brainwashing.

"Terry Jones appears to have a delusional personality," speculates Schäfer. When he came to Germany in the 1980s, Jones apparently considered Cologne "a city of Hell that was founded by Nero's mother," while he thought Germany was "a key country for the supposed Christian revival of Europe," Schäfer says.

Terry Jones used his powers of persuasion to expand the congregation. By the end, Schäfer estimates, it numbered between 800 and 1,000 people. They had to work in the so-called "Lisa Jones Houses," charitable institutions named after his first wife who has since died, under very poor conditions.

Increasingly Radical

Jones became increasingly radical as the years went by, former associates say. At one point he wanted to help a homosexual member to "pray away his sins." Later he began to increasingly target Islam in his sermons. A congregation member reported that some members were afraid to attend services because they expected to be attacked by Muslims. "Terry Jones has a talent for finding topical social issues and seizing on them for his own cause," says Schäfer.

Read more:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,716409,00.html

[KoKo]

12. It's hard to imagine a congregation of 800-1,000 in Cologne, Germany!

Thanks for the post... I think of those religious fanatic sects being set up in third world countries but not in the New Germany. That's worrysome in itself. How many more of these extreme sects are setting up all over Europe. Article doesn't say how long he'd been there...just that he had to leave in '07. Seems like he would have been there awhile with that size congregation.

[Spazito]

17. Exactly!

Appalling, absolutely appalling.

Recommended.

[G_j]

18. Damn Liberal Media! never mind 11 million+ ppl trying to prevent a war

including the (American) United Council Of Churches (unprecedented)
and the Pope himself.

the media is not liberal, it is evil.

[ZombieHorde]

19. Islam is not a race, Islam is an opinion. nt

[defendandprotect]

25. +1000% -- all organized patriarchal religion "is an opinion" . . . !!!

[Skip Intro]

28. +1000% more. nt

[RandomThoughts]

20. Hence why the media has to be broken up

More diverse ownership for society, not for controlling views in society.

[spanone]

21. and the myth of a liberal press persists

[KoKo]

26. It's amazing isn't it? How they get away with still being perceived as Liberal Press..

It breaks hearts of those of us who know what our nepostistic press is. And, that there are people who think Sarah Palin is a REAL contender for the Presidency!

How long has our Press been Liberal? Since the RIGHT WING and their well funded Think Tanks have been telling us this. Back to around Eisenhower's time.

And...why can't we ever change this... Those of us who know. :shrug: Lots of work has been done exposing them since the Internet/Netroots...but still .. most American think only FOX NEWS is the TRUTH TELLER.

[defendandprotect]

23. And, the guy was thrown out of Germany for "spiritual abuse of his parishioners" --- AND ...

also because of questionable financial stuff with church $$ --

But this is what MSM is supposed to do -- distract the public so they won't understand

what is actually going on -- and you can be sure that right now STUFF is going on --

BP . . . oil . . . Obama giving more $$ to corporations -- and only $50 billion to jobs!!

Probably other stuff we don't know yet -- hey, it's only Friday night!

[TheKentuckian]

24. All you gotta do to get the spotlight is to be a missing blond or be a crazy Reich Winger

[defendandprotect]

27. ... because they're desperate NOT to have the spotlight fall on any real issues--!!

[ZombieHorde]

30. Sadly true. nt

[David Zephyr]

29. K&R.

:thumbsup:

[YvonneCa]

31. And then there's Ohio in...

...2004. :7

[geckosfeet]

32. U betcha

[RandomThoughts]

33. Managed Media.

[tomp]

35. so what else is new. the question is what do we do about it.

stepping up the protests against the media might be a start.

where are obama or dems in general on fairness in the media? about where they are on election fraud: ignoring it because it serves or may serve them, too.

[RainDog]

36. This truth speaks volumes about the U.S. media

and none of it is good.

[Clear Blue Sky]

37. Major media has become TMZ

[customerserviceguy]

38. The media, being post religion, likes to see religious figures fighting

It bolsters their belief that religion is nonsense.

Now, I feel the same way, but I don't try to prove it by seeing if I can get a backwoods fundie preacher and a hotheaded foreign mullah into a human cockfight. However, I don't have papers to sell.

[elias7]

39. you guys gotta watch the vid of phil davison, over-the-top GOP speech

hilarious!!

BTW, he lost

[Faygo Kid]

41. I was at those marches. We got virtually nothing, with hundreds of thousands. K&R.

I have pretty much had it. Just want to retire now (still a few years off) and croak; leave the rest to the glories of Fox News, which runs this nation now.

[G_j]

42. k