Coverage of a planned Quran burning in Gainesville and public opposition to an Islamic community center two blocks from Ground Zero offer evidence of liberty media.
No, that’s not a typo. This is not about the amorphous phrase “liberal media” but about how journalists embrace the liberties granted by the First Amendment.
The First Amendment guarantees five freedoms (Quick: Can you name all five?), including a free press and freedom of religion. We believe in the latter like we belive in the former.
Today’s Gainesville Sun has a story about a gathering Thursday of 20 religious leaders in Gainesville representing three faiths and united in their opposition to the planned Quran burning. Reporter Chad Smith, a former student who has done a terrific job covering this issue, took note of what was said and what wasn’t said by those leaders, including the “increasingly virulent discussion about Islam in this country.”
Today’s New York Times reports that a majority of oh-so-liberal New Yorkers join their counterparts across the country in opposing an Islamic community center in lower Manhattan.
The story included a quote from a Brooklyn woman who agreed with her granddaughter about religious liberty in principle but not in this case.
That’s the problem, isn’t it? We agree with liberty as an ideal but retreat when fears overwhelm us. And today, much of America fears Islam as the boogeyman.
Journalists, who depend on the First Amendment for their very existence, know that freedoms aren’t freedoms if they are subject to popular whim. So we side with liberty, even when that makes us unpopular.
