MCLC: "terrorism" in Kunming (5)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Jason McGrath <jmcgrath at umn.edu>
Subject: "terrorism" in Kunming (5)
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Paul Mooney asks if Kevin Lawrence can "point to a single report in the
Western media that has sought to play down the significance of this tragic
event, or which showed sympathy for terrorists."

Yesterday's national print edition of the New York Times had an article
entitled "Chinese Officials Seek to Shift Attention from Rampage," which
concluded with this quote from Chinese scholar Wang Lixiong: "Of course we
condemn such acts of terrorism, but we must recognize that many of them
spring from ethnic oppression. . . . If we don’t solve the problem of
oppression, but instead continue it, in the end we will be completely
defeated."

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/05/world/asia/chinese-officials-seek-to-shif
t-attention-from-rampage.html

I wonder if we could "point to a single report" in the mainstream Western
press following the Boston Marathon bombings that concluded with a similar
observation about American prejudice against Muslims being partly
responsible and raising the prospect that "we will be completely defeated"
as the final point made in the article?

Those who want to defend the Western press and turn every story about
China into a narrative of government oppression are not likely to admit
that the Western coverage of the Kunming attacks has been odd. However,
the initial reluctance of the press and the American government to even
call the organized slaughter of dozens of innocent civilians an act of
terror still speaks volumes to me.

Jason McGrath