The mainstream media has alleged that the actions of Islamic extremist groups contribute to an atmosphere of Islamophobia in the West. The media and Barack Obama frequently tell us that ISIS are seen by moderate Muslims as crazy criminals who are abusing our religion.
With that backdrop, CBS political consultant Frank Luntz sat down with a group of Muslim-Americans in order to find out how they feel about the current atmosphere in the U.S.
CBS reported that the focus group overwhelmingly wanted to emphasize theyre American.
However, sources are indicating the final segment was manipulatively edited, and that political consultant Frank Luntz even silenced some group members combative opinions that might have revealed some views by Muslims that many Americans find disturbing.
When Luntz asked the group how they respond to attacks such as the recent one in San Bernardino, New York City activist Amelia Noor-Oshiro told The Intercept she asked Luntz, Why dont you ask that to people who actually commit acts of terror? Why dont you ask that to White America who are responsible for a majority of domestic terror attacks? a common media assertion that has been proven false.
That didnt make it into the on-air segment.
[Luntz] kept saying how he felt bad that no one listens to Muslims and how he wanted to give us an opportunity to talk to the general population. But how can that happen when were manipulatively edited to have us fit their own narrative and agenda?
Analysts sais that Luntz and CBS seemed intent on whitewashing these Muslims views so as to put them in a more favorable light to Americans and perhaps, to use against Donald Trumps campaign.
In a Facebook post Friday, one of the participants, Sarah Harvard, talked about how she was disappointed by the experience:
Harvard wrote, in part:
Luntz silenced me and other participants who have routinely brought up the fact the government has enacted in state violence against the Muslim community whether that may be through entrapment cases and surveillance programs and our concerns about institutional racism.
He shut me down when I said that President Obama and Hillary Clinton has killed many Muslims under the administration when we were discussing Trump, and ironically for a GOP strategist, he shut me down when I talked about how Democrats have enacted some of the most deadliest and discriminatory policies against Muslims…
They also cut out portions of where participants talked about media accountability when discussing Islam.
For example, Harvard wrote that after Luntz asked the group whether they were Americans or Muslims first, she chose to demonstrate the offensive nature of the question by asking, Well, are you an American or Jewish first?
That didnt make it on the air either.
The Intercept reported similar findings after conducting interviews with two of the focus groups participants, who also claimed that CBS edited out parts of the discussion where they raised their own concerns.
The members also stated that Frank Luntz silenced members of the group when they criticized discriminatory U.S. government policies.
For his part, Luntz has said he was trying to be diplomatic, adding:
I did not push as much as I normally do in these sessions, and the reason why is because I wanted the voice to be unedited.
While a longer segment was added to the CBS website, Harvard claims that this, too, essentially was just the same thing over again.
