On Fox News Sunday Brit Hume noted how the media, which
were quick to tie Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh to militia
groups and anti-government attitudes, have identified the
Washington, DC area snipers as a “Gulf War veteran” and his
“companion,” when they just as easily could have been
characterized as a member of the Nation of Islam and an illegal
alien.
As the Media Research Center pointed out on Friday, “the two sniper suspects were a Muslim tied to the Nation of Islam and an illegal alien,
but not to the networks on Thursday night. Instead, the networks
labeled John Allen Muhammad a 'Gulf War veteran' and only implied
indirectly that John Lee Malvo was not a U.S. citizen. ABC's Peter
Jennings dubbed Muhammad as 'an American. He was born in
Louisiana' and noted only how John Lee Malvo is 'from Jamaica.'
NBC's Tom Brokaw cited 'the arrest early this morning of a 41-
year-old army veteran and a Jamaican teenager.' CNN's Aaron Brown
asked: 'The question of who they are. The army veteran and the
teenager.' Colleague Kathleen Koch identified Muhammad as 'a Gulf
War army veteran.'” For a full rundown network by network, click here.
Picking up on that theme, during the panel segment on Fox News
Sunday, Brit Hume observed: “You get a striking contrast between
Timothy McVeigh and the way people rushed to identify him with the
militia groups and the other groups that might have provided
motivation for him. And you may recall we had this orgy of media
coverage of militia groups and pretty soon we were down to the
point where the press was taking a hard look at people who had
criticized the government. Well, in this case the only thing we're
hearing about this man is that he's a Gulf War veteran and, as the
New York Times described this morning, he had, quote, 'a
companion.'”
Moderator Tony Snow jumped in to point out how Friday's
Washington Post had referred to how the “the two suspects are an
apparent penniless army veteran of the Persian Gulf War and his
teenage companion.”
Hume then suggested: “It might also be worth noting that what
you have here is a Nation of Islam member who is reported to have
been a bodyguard for Louis Farrakhan, and his illegal alien
friend. That's another way to characterize it.” Snow went on to note that “Farrakhan now says he was not a bodyguard.”
Symbolic of the national media's disinterest in Muhammad's
Nation of Islam connection, it was never raised on Meet the Press
on Sunday during two segments about the shootings which consumed
over half of the hour-long show.
A bit later on Fox News Sunday, Weekly Standard Editor Bill
Kristol raised how the media and profilers insisted the snipers
would turn out to be “white guys” when, in fact, they were two “black
guys.” Kristol wondered about political correctness: “Can you
imagine if a profiler had tried to get on, even Fox News, let
alone the other networks, and said, 'you know what, I suspect it's
a Nation of Islam member and an illegal alien who are doing this
killing.' They never would have let them on TV.”
Indeed, if they existed, they never were.
But even after the arrest the media didn't see John Muhammad's
Nation of Islam membership or John Malvo's illegal alien status as
relevant. For television network examples click here.
(This update courtesy of the Media Research Center.)
Newspapers took the same tack. As Snow noted above, a front
page story in Friday's Washington Post offered this description of
the murdering duo:
“The two suspects are an apparently penniless Army veteran of
the Persian Gulf War and his teenage companion, whose strange
cross-country journey from Washington state ended early yesterday
at an Interstate 70 rest stop in Maryland.”
A sidebar piece profiling Muhammad did get to his link to the
Nation of Islam, and similar secondary stories ran in many papers,
but that was not what first occurred to the Post or other major
newspapers. Below are examples from newspapers around the country
of how they identified Muhammad and Malvo in their lead front page
stories on Friday, October 25:
— The New York Times: “The men arrested were John Allen
Muhammad, 41, an Army veteran with an expert's rating in
marksmanship, and John Lee Malvo, 17, a Jamaican citizen traveling
as Mr. Muhammad's unofficial ward. The authorities would not
speculate about the motive for the string of shootings.”
— Los Angeles Times: “The killing rampage that menaced
suburban Washington with random death for three weeks was declared
at an end Thursday by relieved officials who arrested a
41-year-old drifter, who was once an Army sharpshooter, and a
17-year-old Jamaican youth.”
— Boston Globe: “One of the most extraordinary manhunts in
American history came to a peaceful conclusion yesterday with the
predawn arrest of a former US Army soldier and a teenage companion
as they slept in their car at a Maryland rest stop.”
— Miami Herald: “Police declared the serial sniper murders
solved Thursday night. In custody: an 'all-American' veteran of
the Gulf War, and a teenage companion implicated in a deadly
robbery that ultimately led to their capture.”
— Philadelphia Inquirer: “Police declared the Washington-area
sniper attacks solved yesterday. In custody were a veteran of the
Persian Gulf war and a teenager accompanying him who authorities
say has been implicated in a deadly robbery. Police said a rifle
found in their car matched the murder weapon.”
The second paragraph of the Inquirer story did note Muhammad's
anti-American views: “Neither suspect had been charged in the
killings last night, and their alleged motive remained unclear,
although acquaintances said both suspects had expressed
anti-American sentiments.”
— Baltimore Sun: “The trail of terror police say was
undertaken by a Persian Gulf war veteran and his 17- year-old
traveling companion has come to an end as investigators prepare to
lodge murder charges in a string of sniper shootings carried out
from the cover of woods, darkness and a car expressly outfitted
for killing.”
— Chicago Tribune: “Three weeks of terror and intensive
police work culminated in the morning darkness Thursday at a
Maryland rest stop along I-70 when authorities arrested an Army
veteran and his 17-year-old companion, believed responsible for
killing 10 and striking fear in millions along a 100-mile swath.”
— Dallas Morning News: “A region terrorized by a sniper
breathed a sigh of relief Thursday after authorities arrested an
Army veteran and a teenager described as the perpetrators
responsible for a spree that claimed 10 lives and maimed three
other people.”
On Friday morning the networks maintained the same approach as
they had the night before. On NBC's Today, for instance. MRC
analyst Ken Shepherd noted how Joe Johns described the suspects:
“The emerging picture of the sniper murder suspects: a volatile
controlling 41-year old man, twice divorced father of three and a
Jamaican-born teenager suspected of joining him on an interstate
murder spree. Born John Allen Williams, changed his name to John
Allen Muhammad. A Desert Storm veteran, spent ten years in the
Army and seven years in the National Guard. Described as a below-
average soldier by Army sources nevertheless becoming an expert
marksman.”
