THE MEDIA AND THE SNIPERS

Lots of whining last week about the sniper case and the excesses of 24-hour media coverage. Sure. Fine. Okay. No doubt Columbia's journalism school will host 50 panel discussions featuring news directors in orgies of self-flagellation. Bad media! Bad media!

One thing that won't be covered--THE SCRAPBOOK is taking bets--is bias. Specifically, why did journalists focus more on the military background of John Allen Muhammad than on his conversion to Islam?

The Washington Post on Thursday carried this headline--"Police Looking for Former Soldier for Questioning in Sniper Case." NPR that same morning used only Muhammad's previous name, John Allen Williams. On Thursday afternoon, websites for each of the major news networks prominently reported Muhammad's status as an Army veteran while ignoring or burying his conversion to radical Islam. MSNBC was typical: "A former soldier and a teenager arrested in connection with the sniper hunt were expected to be arraigned Thursday, as sources told NBC News the evidence against them included a rifle of the same caliber as the gun used in the killings and a car modified to make for easy shooting."

Is the "former soldier" part of Muhammad's personal history relevant? Possibly. More relevant than his conversion to Islam, his reported defense of the September 11 attacks, and his sympathies with al Qaeda? Please.

Perhaps the most egregious example, first noted by weblogger Diane Moon, comes from the New York Times. In their October 24 article, Times reporters Francis X. Clines and David Johnston claimed that federal officials were interested

While the New York Times and the networks were desperately seeking Muhammad's ties to neonazis, in Washington state, the Bellingham Herald pursued a different angle. Reporters John Stark, Aubrey Cohen, and Mary Lane Gallagher found the Rev. Al Archer, who directs the Lighthouse Mission, a homeless shelter where Muhammad occasionally stayed. According to the Herald, Archer was concerned that Muhammad was a terrorist and called the FBI in October 2001 to alert them. Archer was suspicious in part because Muhammad flew around the country while staying at the homeless shelter. Said Archer: "I felt like he was part of an organization. I felt like he had some connection with terrorists." Archer says he told the FBI that Muhammad has "connections somewhere with somebody who's got money."

Harjeep Singh, who knew Muhammad from the local YMCA, worried about "anti-American statements" and said Muhammad spoke of vague plans for violence. Other people who knew Muhammad say he passed out "pro-Islamic fliers" in Bellingham and seemed more interested in politics and religion after September 11.

Maybe Stark, Cohen, and Gallagher will get invited to the journalism-school discussions, but don't bet on it.

TOUJOURS VIETNAM

Anthony Lewis, former liberal stalwart of the New York Times op-ed page, has gazed into his crystal ball for the New York Review of Books, in a cover piece entitled "Bush and Iraq." As it has been for the last quarter century, Lewis's crystal ball is tuned to the all-Vietnam, all-the-time station.