David Cole: Cheering the Hate Crime Relay Race

David Cole writes:

I’m no defender of the CCC, but I would think that all Web journalists and site owners, left or right, would take issue with Yahoo News’ assertion that if someone views a page on your site, you are now “linked” to any crimes they may commit. (…)

There was one additional question that Newman steadfastly refused to answer:

“In light of the mass shooting in Chattanooga: If the Muslim gunman is found to have read and liked something on an al Qaeda or ISIS website, do you, as a journalist, believe that this alone is enough to justify saying that the gunman and the murders are ‘al Qaeda linked’ or ‘ISIS linked?’” With that, Newman’s chattiness vanished. Of course, we all kind of know the answer to that question. If a suspect in a mass act of violence is Muslim, the esteemed members of the “mainstream” media bend over backwards to not be sensationalistic. All “links” must be proved a dozen times over, and pro-jihadist sentiments need to be understood from a culturally sensitive perspective. If the suspect is white and Christian, anything goes, no guidelines. But Muslim? Now all of a sudden, Al Tompkins’ “guidelines” matter.

You think that’s just a baseless accusation on my part? I’ll close with one more revealing admission…