Mosque-ing the the real problem
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Mosque-Erade | ||||
|
||||
Mainstream media lets us down. Again.
Last night’s Daily Show had its usual fun with the political controversy engulfing plans to build a mosque and Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero. We’re going wall-to-wall on this topic here at TPP this week, both because it’s an important debate and because it touches so many basic moral and philosophical questions.
Of many pokes at the mainstream media during this clip, one worth noting in particular is Stewart’s scathing attack on news outlets that seem more concerned with the political fallout of what politicians say about the cultural center than whether building the thing is right or wrong. A New York Times headline from today underscores this media focus: “G.O.P. Seizes on Mosque Issue Ahead of Elections.”
Are there any issues where it is simply wrong to play politics?
There are good arguments on both sides. On the one hand, politicians who distort issues simply to score political points are guilty of both betraying the trust of the voters who elected them, and of distracting the electorate from issues that do matter.
On the other hand, these are exactly the big questions we expect our elected officials to take on. Assuming that my congressman or senator espouses a genuine stance on the issue, it’s important to me to know where he stands–how he balances freedom of religion and speech against issues of national security, moderation, and sensitivity.
What should be troubling to us are the elected leaders who seem to have either changed their position in response to shifting political winds, or who refuse to give us a glimpse into their genuine worldviews by hedging on the issue altogether (Exhibit A on both counts: President Barack Obama).
Of course, Stewart’s target is the media, which seems hungry to use the issue to engender the kind of political division and fighting words that drive ratings. This seems more straightforwardly problematic. We rely on the media as a major conduit to government, a key source of information, and as one of the only platforms for open debate.
We can respect the media’s need to succeed as a business, but we should be skeptical when that need eclipses its responsibility to encourage real discussion in America, not squash it. Obsessing over the political fallout to the Ground Zero mosque and cultural center question lets us all down. It steers the debate away from a fundamental question about our values, and it heats up an already difficult issue.
We should expect better.
-Sam
Related posts:
- Islamic mosque, Islamist mosque, or extremist mosque?
- Ground Zero mosque
- Mayor on the mosque
- Democrats not public philosophizing, say critics
- An uncertain climate
ShareComments
Leave a Reply
