NY Times Defends Slur
New York Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt defends his paper’s labeling of Brigitte Gabriel as a “radical Islamophobe.” (Click here for CAMERA’s earlier blog about this) He disingenuously writes that
“Solomon had gone over the edited transcript with Gabriel before it was published,” and Gabriel “had no problems with the questions or the answers, as depicted in the piece.”
However, the slur “radical Islamophobe” wasn’t in the article itself, but in the Table of Contents blurb promoting the article. For Hoyt to write that Gabriel agreed the questions and answers in the article were accurate doesn’t in the least mean that she accepted as true the label of “radical Islamophobe.” And it also doesn’t mean that she didn’t think the questions were for the most part preposterous. It just means that the article reflected what was asked and answered.
Gabriel is accustomed to dealing from time to time with ill-informed and arrogant reporters, so despite Solomon’s obnoxious questions, Gabriel was still able to convey her important message and stimulate interest in her books:
“Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America,” and “They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It.”
The public is weighing in on Hoyt’s lame response in the comments section that follows his column. Here are some excerpts:
Thank you for attempting to address the error made by Solomon but the ‘phobe’ does not fit. “Islam expert” perhaps, but no more ‘phobe’ than Paul Revere and his bunch warning that the British were coming. Soloman would, of course, interview Paul and write the next day of a Britophobe. Flight attendants giving instructions would be crashophobes, and so on. Should I interview Solomon I would, of course write of a truthophobe and your newspaper an apology-o-phobe.
— Posted by Paul, FL
…when we label someone phobic because they react to FACTS, we are the ones who are indeed phobic and inaccurate.
— Posted by William Buffton
We hope you will add your opinion in the comment section after Hoyt’s column. Click here to go there.
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