In 1995 a massive explosion ripped through Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. The next 24 hours would sow the seeds of how the media reported attacks like the one in Oklahoma. This is not to say that before this point it had been any different, but for those from my generation it was the first such moment.
The next morning the western media went to town, they smelt blood and they were determined to get their pound of flesh – Muslim flesh. I recall the front-page of the now debunked Today newspaper, which used the image below, with the headline “In the Name of Allah” (unfortunately I couldn’t find an image of the front-page). At that point there was no evidence to suggest a Muslim had carried out the attack, on the contrary Tim McVeigh, who was eventually found guilty for the attacks, had been arrested very soon afterwards. He was not a Muslim, he had no super jihadist agenda but instead had some white supremacist hatred of the whole world.
The reaction of the world was clear if they were going to be told that Muslims had carried out this attack, then Muslims were public enemy number one! A clear example of cause and effect, what the media said created an opinion. So when a newspaper deliberately skewed the truth it was for the simple reason to create an anti-Muslim opinion.
Bearing this in mind when initial news broke of the attacks in Norway, it was little surprise that media simply said a few key phrases. “Al Qadeah”, “Islam”, “9-11” and “Terrorist”. It would do enough to build an image of who was responsible. It got the farcical point that even after the arrested individual had been described as White and Blonde haired a so called “expert” on Al-Jazeera refused to accept it could be so.
Whilst the more clued up analysts, such as those at Stratfor, were making it clear it was too early to say who had carried out the attacks, the gutter press had made up their minds.
I took the liberty of screen grabbing the Daily Mail homepage on the night of Friday 22nd July 2011, simply because all indications of who had carried out the attacks were pointing to other than Al-Qaeedah. The screenshot is below , it is clear that the Daily Mail doesn’t believe in a wait and see policy. Not only had they nailed the people that had done it but also the motive.
They were not alone in this kind of dishonest hatred mongering, no their cousins across the Atlantic were at it too – CBS News had gone one step further. They even knew the name of the organization that had done it: “Global Jihad” (see screen grab below). Although there were reports of some group accepting responsibility, the greater evidence was pointing to someone local with a local grudge. This was irresponsible journalism at its best.
By about 3.00 am it was 100% clear that this was not the work of Muslims but of a 32-year old local Norwegian named Anders Behring Breivik, who like McVeigh had right-wing extremist views.
Looking in the cold light of the next morning , one would think the Anti-Muslim vitriol would have stopped. However, The Sun (another Murdoch paper) ran the headline “Norway’s 9/11” a clear calculated and deliberate attempt to equate events in Oslo to 9/11 and therefore Muslims (frontpage below).
Over the last few weeks the media has been under the spotlight due to the News of the World (NOTW) fiasco, politicians , the media themselves and to a wider extent society have been asked some very difficult questions about the media and its responsibilities. The answers to these questions can’t be found during a cross-examination of the Murdoch’s, senior policemen or NOTW journalists, the answers are a fundamental part of what makes up British society. For it is from this very society that those involved in hacking came and it is from this society that those involved in spreading lies and slander about Oslo also came.
Has the media really moved on since the Oklahoma bombings? The answer is clearly not. The media has and still does play up to the sensationalist public, a public who have become accustomed to the kind of Islamophobia described above. Through years and decades of vilifying Muslims, Islam has become the go to reason for all things “evil”. Islam has been dragged through the intellectual gutter in an attempt to smear its name, there have been calls to reform it due to the terrorism is apparently breeds.
At this juncture after the horrific loss of life in Oslo a real desire for answers would dictate that Western societies now start a process of internal self-reflection. A process that should include that re-assessing of its value systems that nurture journalists whose xenophobia masks the truth. A value system that leads to the kinds of horrors that Oklahoma, Columbine, Virginia Tech and Oslo produce.
