I just had to share this excellent article discussing the US's coverage of the terror attack in Norway.
Quote:
Being in a sleepy Texas town when my home country was struck by a double terrorism attack was eerie. Following the story developing in American and Norwegian media simultaneously didn’t make the experience less bizarre.
I found the US coverage to be slow, riddled with inaccuracies and at times patronizing towards a nation still in shock. Almost an hour after Norwegian press reported that police had upgraded the death toll to over 80, CNN were reporting 17 dead. But worse: hours after it was clear that an ethnic Norwegian man was arrested, and those with local knowledge had surmised that Utøya was an unlikely target for Muslim fundamentalists in the first place, CNN and FOX still talked Jihad like it was the only show in town.
When facts about the perpetrator finally made their desks, a good disguise or a convert were immediately floated as possibilities, the willingness to jump to conclusions suddenly dampened by already having settled on one. In retrospect they’ve tried to hide behind the fact that someone on a jihadist online forum claimed responsibility. But somebody always does. Since when did we let an anonymous online forum poster, claiming to represent an organization nobody has heard of, set the agenda of all newsrooms in the world?
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http://www.opendemocracy.net/magnus-...-norway-terror