The NYT, all the news fit to wrap fish in.
NY Times Manages to Praise Muslims Over Assassination Attempt
Wed, March 6, 2013
Lars Hedegaard (right)At 11:20 a.m. on Feb. 5, Lars Hedegaard answered his door bell to an apparent mailman. Instead of receiving a package, however, the 70-year-old Danish historian and journalist found himself face to face with a would-be assassin about one third his age.
The assailant shot once, narrowly missing his head. The gun locked, Hedegaard wrestled with him, and the young man fled.
Given Hedegaard’s criticism of Islam and his even being taken to court on criminal charges of “hate speech,” the attack reverberated in Denmark and beyond. The Associated Press reported this incident, which was featured prominently in the British press, including the Guardian, the Daily Mail and the Spectator, as well as in Canada’s National Post. The Wall Street Journal published an article by him about his experience.
When the New York Times belatedly bestirred itself on Feb. 28 to inform its readership about the assassination attempt, it did not so much report on the event itself but on alleged Muslim support for Hedegaard’s right to express himself.
As implied by the title of the article, “Danish Opponent of Islam Is Attacked, and Muslims Defend His Right to Speak,” NYT journalist Andrew Higgins mainly celebrates Danish Islam:
“Muslim groups in the country, which were often criticized during the cartoon furor for not speaking out against violence and even deliberately fanning the flames, raised their voices to condemn the attack on Mr. Hedegaard and support his right to express his views, no matter how odious [emphasis added].”
And this is the theme that pervades the piece. For example, Higgins quotes Karen Haekkerup, the minister of social affairs and integration, who says he is pleased that “the Muslim community is now active in the debate.”
(For a close dissection of Higgin’s agitprop, see Diana West’s evisceration; see also Andrew Bostom’s article where he compares Higgins to Walter Duranty, the NYT reporter who whitewashed Stalin’s crimes.)
Essentially, Higgins delegitimizes Hedegaard. In addition to the snarky “no matter how odious” reference, Higgins dismisses Hedegaard’s “opinions” as “a stew of anti-Muslim bile and conspiracy-laden forecasts of a coming civil war” and claims the Dane has “fanned wild conspiracy theories and sometimes veered into calumny.”
These characterizations of Hedegaard’s work are a vicious travesty. A few specifics:
