Burn baby burn: how the media created the Koran conflagration crisis

Unlike Pastor Jones, the Danish cartoons only became international news after people started protesting, and dying, throughout the Middle East – months after their initial publication in Denmark.

It was only when a group of Danish imams went on a tour of the Middle East, brandishing copies of the offending cartoons (and many more besides), that a Danish debate about self-censorship became transnational – and violent.

Then there really was a story worthy of international attention: European ambassadors reprimanded by their Middle-Eastern host countries, dozens of people killed, countless threats of violence against media organisations, embassies, and individuals – and all because of a few cartoons. 

And yet, with only a few notable exceptions, news outlets around the world, including in America, refused to show us what it was we were talking about. 

So, why were the largest media organisations in the world so reluctant to cause offence to Muslims in 2006, but see nothing wrong with turning the odious Pastor Jones in to an international celebrity? What happened to their professed sensitivity? Well, they never had it in the first place. Their only concern in 2006 was for their own skins and, now that no-one is threatening their lives, their “sensitivity” is nowhere to be seen.

And if people in far off lands die as a consequence of their irresponsibility, that’s just more viewers tomorrow. 

Pastor Jones is famous for something that he never got around to doing. The real scandal is not that a bigot wanted to make a name for himself, but that an irresponsible and hypocritical media made sure that it happened. It is they, and not Jones, who deserve our critical attention, and unreserved contempt.