Fort Hood Killings: A Tragedy for Politically Correct Journalists

Vol. 22, No. 24 / November 16, 2009 08:11 ET / Notable Quotables

Ft. Hood: A Tragedy for Politically Correct Journalists

 

Newsweek's Evan Thomas

“I cringe that he [Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan] is a Muslim. I mean, because it inflames all the fears. I think he’s probably just a nut case. But with that label attached to him, it will get the right wing going and it just — I mean these things are tragic, but that makes it much worse.”— Newsweek’s Evan Thomas on Inside Washington, November 6. [Audio/video (0:20): Windows Media | MP3 audio]“As for the suspect, Nidal Hasan, as one officer’s wife told me, ‘I wish his name was Smith.’”— ABC’s Martha Raddatz on World News, November 5.“It’s looking more and more like he was just, sort of, a religious nut. And you know, Islam doesn’t have a majority —  the Christian religion has its full, you know, full helping of nuts, too.”— CBS’s Bob Schieffer to Senator Lindsey Graham on Face the Nation, November 8.

Correspondent Bill Weir on ABC’s World News

“The Pentagon has made a real concerted effort to create a military that is culturally sensitive and religiously tolerant, but Muslims in uniform today face a challenge not seen since Japanese-Americans fought in World War II. They taste suspicion from some fellow soldiers who question their loyalty and resentment from fellow Muslims opposed to both American wars.”— Correspondent Bill Weir on ABC’s World News, November 6. [Audio/video (0:35): Windows Media | MP3 audio]

He’s No Terrorist — Just a Stressed-Out Soldier

 

CBS’s Harry Smith questioning Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki

“How disturbing is it to you that it looks like various agencies failed to connect the dots on Major Hasan?…We know from the beginning of the Iraq war, the escalation in number of cases of post-traumatic stress disorder. The other fact is, is that the more people go back to these fields, these theaters of war, either in Iraq or Afghanistan, it multiplies the incidence of these kinds of things occurring.”— CBS’s Harry Smith questioning Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki on the November 11 Early Show. Hasan never served in Iraq or Afghanistan.