Muslim Scare Stories – Here And There

You don’t have to look far among the outpourings of the Fourth Estate to pick up on the constant barrage of anti-Muslim drivel. The red tops of the Murdoch press, and the domain of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre, are straightforwardly venal and unpleasant, while the Desmond titles are off the scale in their frothing, proto-BNP bigotry.

So how about the USA? Sad to say, frightening the masses using the spectre of Islam is all the rage there too, but with the inevitable twist: leading the charge is not the press, but our old friends at Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse). Nothing, but nothing, is off limits to Fox: the revelation that space agency NASA includes “reaching out to the Muslim world” among its outreach goals sent them almost into meltdown.

Also being given rather a lot of coverage at Fox is any controversy over the siting and building of mosques, rather like, well, the cheaper end of the press in the UK. Fortunately, this behaviour has also come to the attention of Daily Show host Jon Stewart, who gave Fox both barrels on Wednesday evening.

That edition was shown in the UK on More4 yesterday at 2030, but in case you missed it, the show, with Fox “star” Steve Doocy verging on self parody, is available on 4OD (right HERE). There are adverts, but you won’t have long to wait: Stewart tackled this one in the first half of the prog.