We've looked at the Daily Caller stories about the Journolist list-serv. Most of them have little to do with religion news but some of them might be of interest to GetReligion readers. Today's story looks at what the Daily Caller calls the "heroes" on Journolist -- those whose "postings reflected admirable integrity or civility." The write-up of the New Yorker's James Surowiecki was particularly interesting:
When Nidal Hasan murdered 13 people at Ft. Hood, Texas, shouting "Allahu Akbar!" before opening fire, members of Journolist debated whether the media should report on Hasan's apparent ties to Islamic extremism.
Luke Mitchell, then of Harper's magazine, said doing so "points the way to things that are actually alarmingly dangerous, such as the idea that there is a large conspiracy of Islamists at work in the United States, that we need to 'do something' about this conspiracy."
Surowiecki replied to Mitchell and others that the truth was worth pursuing.
"I find it bizarre that anyone would argue that an accurate description of what happened is somehow pointless," Surowiecki said. "That is, that it's not useful to offer up an accurate picture of Hasan's actions because nothing obvious follows from it. We want, as much as possible, to have a clear picture of what's actually going on in the world. Describing Hasan as a violent Islamist terrorist is much closer to the truth than describing him as a disturbed individual."
This is probably a good example of how discussions on Journolist mirrored or resulted in mainstream coverage. We all remember that there was the odd attempt to turn Hasan's violent outburst into more a story of a "disturbed individual" than a violent terrorist. On the other hand, those attempts failed pretty quickly because of the quality reporting done by the Washington Post and other media outlets that worked to serve the truth rather than a preconceived agenda.
This exchange reveals how difficult it can be for journalists to report the truth even about something as newsworthy as a mass shooting at a U.S. Army base. And it's nice to see that at least one of the 400 folks on Journolist was able to see the importance in reporting news over unfounded speculation about mental health.