Energized by its self-powered dudgeon over an ineffectual DVD sent out via newspaper to swing states in the presidential campaign, the Council on American-Islamic Relations has broadened its election-year program.
CAIR's latest tactic is to link from its daily e-mail to the work of Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, a group established in 1986 by Jeff Cohen, a former lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union.
FAIR has released a document that purports to be a comprehensive study, titled "Smearcasting: How Islamophobes Spread Fear, Bigotry and Misinformation."
"Smearcasting" uses star power to sell its point, listing Christian Broadcasting Network chief Pat Robertson, CNN commentator Sean Hannity and Fox News pundit Bill O'Reilly among its "Dirty Dozen" who allegedly spread anti-Muslim bigotry via their several weapons of mass communication.
To be sure, some on FAIR's list have said or written things that shouldn't be said or written about anyone unless, of course, it's anyone who intends to commit indiscriminate murder, as do some extremists who claim Islam as a guiding principle. But FAIR drives deeper, even calling into question the everyday coverage by mainstream media.
FAIR calls down papers of no less stature than the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times for having the effrontery to offer cultural information about the behaviors of Iraqi and Afghan citizens.
"Why," asks FAIR, "is it necessary to invoke cultural stereotypes . . .? The widespread assumption in the U.S. media is that people . . . in the Muslim world are fundamentally unlike Americans."
First, it isn't necessary to pass cultural information, but we must caution that readers are otherwise left to assume, perhaps wrongly. Second, it's a stretch to label them fundamental.
Third, such "stereotypes" often are offered by reporters drawn from those very populations. Many Associated Press correspondents cover their own countries.
Fourth, and this is likely not what FAIR would like to hear, the character of their protests, especially when it comes to their more narrowly drawn points - like the "cultural stereotypes" - echoes criticisms of media heard from the so-called religious right.
After all, their criticisms spring from the same basis - that characterizations of a given population are, or can be, racist, over-generalized and unfair. They also come with the territory.
Any member of any subgroup - Christians, Jews, Southerners, Midwesterners, rural dwellers, city folk, the homeless, the military, soccer moms, Asians, blacks, whatever - can commiserate with CAIR over mischaracterizations by media.
And there are ways to deal with that. Calling for limits on public discourse or accentuating a stereotype of mainstream media as slanted may seem dramatic, and even hold grains of truth, but are not usually effective.
It must be recognized, sympathetically, that Muslims face a tough task to decisively distance themselves from cynical killers, like evangelical and fundamental Christians have had to do with, say, David Koresh's troublesome Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, or Fred Phelps' questionable, vengeance-stained, judgmental theology.
However, that is exactly what they should do, or face more of the same unfairness - regardless of whether FAIR is there to call it so. Evangelicals and fundamentalists can testify to that.
Whether FAIR does a fair job of defending CAIR's turf is a subjective matter. But FAIR didn't do CAIR any favors.
Stan Nelson is news editor at The Pueblo Chieftain. He may be reached by e-mail at
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