from SLATE: Portland Newspaper Apologizes for Peaceful Portrayal of Islam Editors at the Portland Press Herald spent Saturday apologizing to their readers, not for a factual inaccuracy or other error but for running a prominently placed photograph of Portland-area Muslims celebrating the end of Ramadan on Sept. 11. "We sincerely apologize," editor and publisher Richard Connor wrote in a 700-word mea culpa. Connor described calling in extra staff on Saturday to cope with phone calls, Facebook, and Twitter, rushing apologies to Oregonians offended by the peaceful depiction of Islam and lack of "balance" in regard to Sept. 11. Time's James Poniewozik is horrified. "Here's where we are in America, 2010," he writes. "There is now one group of Americans whose peaceful religious observance cannot be noted by decent people, unless it is 'balanced' by the mention of a vile crime committed in 2001."
Meanwhile [in cloud-cuckoo land], the Texas Board of Education is considering regulating how Texas textbooks can describe Islam. One board member has complained that textbooks have been "tainted" with "gross pro-Islamic, anti-Christian distortions." According to the Dallas Morning News, supporters of the resolution claim that "more such discriminatory treatment of religion may occur as Middle Easterners buy into the U.S. public school textbook oligopoly, as they are doing now," but "offered no specific evidence of such investments." -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
