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Times Watch for 04/04/03
Utah: Conservative, Religious, and (Naturally) Bigoted
Nick Madigan’s Friday story on white supremacists in Utah takes some cheap shots at the citizens of Utah. “Traditionally conservative, independent and avowedly religious, many Utahans have long tolerated what some people elsewhere consider to be extreme points of view, including the perspectives of conspiracy theorists and opponents of a so-called world order.” Extremist conspiracy theorists? Is Madigan talking about Salt Lake City or San Francisco?
More evidence of extremism: Support for the Second Amendment. Madigan’s very next sentence reads: “The right to bear arms is revered, and government is often viewed with suspicion. Two years ago, in La Verkin, in southern Utah, officials approved a law that forbade entry to anyone associated with the United Nations.” (Madigan doesn’t mention that the city council repealed the ordinance six months later.) “Another southern Utah town, Virgin, passed a measure requiring every household to have at least one firearm. Efforts to pass a hate-crimes law in the Utah Legislature have failed for four consecutive years.”
Anthony DePalma’s war overview for Friday almost implies that the allies aren’t playing fair: “The number of casualties so far in the push on Baghdad has been uneven. American commanders estimate that more than 2,000 Iraqi troops were killed as coalition forces swept north from the Kuwaiti border to the outskirts of Baghdad. The latest Pentagon calculation of American losses is 42 dead, 7 captured and 16 missing. British troops have reported 27 dead.”
In her Friday story, “Images of Victory Obscure
Reality,” Times TV reporter Alessandra Stanley is distressed with the lack of dead soldiers and civilians on television:
“Despite all the sobering lessons learned over the past week, there were few images of civilian casualties or dead American soldiers during yesterday's high….It was not a day to dredge up the risk of suicide bombings or American soldiers accidentally opening fire on a bus filled with women and children. Nor was
television in any mood to dwell on the possibility of dangerous urban warfare still ahead.”
E-mail Times Watch Director, Clay Waters, with Times Watch feedback at cwaters@mediaresearch.org