Does the media have a blind spot when it comes to Muslim immigrants? In this day of “high concept” reporting that must fit an instantly recognizable narrative, is the news media ignoring or downplaying the fact that the man who alerted police to the fizzled Times Square bombing was a Muslim?
(And to short-circuit the kinds of emails and/or comments on websites that may result from us noting this: no, I am not a Muslim..my name is “Gandelman” and I was…bar mitzvahed.)
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.