Mainstream media misattributed the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing to Muslims.

Evidence

When news first broke of an explosion at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, CBS News dispatched its terrorism expert, Steven Emerson, to the site to offer his analysis for viewers. Emerson reported: “This was done with the attempt to inflict as many casualties as possible. That is a Middle Eastern trait. Oklahoma City, I can tell you, is probably considered one of the largest centers of Islamic radical activity outside the Middle East.” Other television news networks and newspapers, including ABC News, the Chicago Tribune, and Newsday, echoed Emerson’s analysis and insisted that the bombing bore the marks of Middle Eastern terrorism. Although the mainstream media assumed that it was only a matter of time before investigators confirmed the identities of the Muslim culprits, as it turned out, the perpetrator was Timothy McVeigh, a white, Christian American and Gulf War veteran with strong antigovernment convictions. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 504

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: whether media framing itself planted the public perception of Muslims as terrorists, measurable in survey data before and after the McVeigh reveal.
• XREF: connects to: Muslim-perpetrated attacks receive dramatically disproportionate news coverage — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 217; Mainstream American television has a history of misrepresenting jihad — Asena Karipek, Portrayals of Jihad: A Cause of…, 47; The false eighty-percent-mosque claim circulated unchallenged across mainstream media — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 559 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Mainstream American television has a history of misrepresenting jihad #exemplifies (0.75) — Asena Karipek, Portrayals of Jihad, 47
• Media frames Muslim terrorists as religion-driven simpletons while psychologizing non-Muslim perpetrators #exemplifies (0.70) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 506
• Media coverage of Muslim violence superficially supports an Islam-violence link #exemplifies (0.65) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 282
• Muslim-perpetrated attacks receive dramatically disproportionate news coverage #exemplifies (0.60) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 217
• The Oklahoma City bombing authored by a white Christian fueled anti-Muslim deportation law #expands (0.60) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 277
• The false eighty-percent-mosque claim circulated unchallenged across mainstream media #corroborates (0.55) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 559
• American media conflated Iranians, Arabs, Sunnis, and Shiites into one Muslim menace. #exemplifies (0.50) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 254