In conclusion our group found the media coverage of what has been called the Mosque near Ground Zero to be irresponsible. In order to report the story very quickly many inaccuracies and much “truthiness” have been reported as fact. The main topics that we found to be portrayed very poorly are proximity and wording.
While reporting on the Mosque situation, many networks used the incorrect wording possibly because they didn’t have all the facts. Many reports called the proposed Cultural Center a mosque, when in fact only 2 of the 13 stories in the building will be a mosque. The remaining stories will be rooms and auditoriums for a variety of community activities that will benefit all of Lower Manhattan. Also another wording issue was calling the area hallowed ground when the building that the proposed Cultural Center would be taking over was an old Burlington Coat factory.
The other issue that was covered irresponsibly was where the proposed Cultural Center was going to be. Many networks reported it to be on Ground Zero, which wasn’t true. The true location was a couple blocks away from Ground Zero. Without this confusion it’s our opinion that much of the uproar could have been avoided and people’s opinions would have had a chance to formulate their own opinion instead of hearing a biased one from a news network.
In the end our group recognizes that most journalists and networks seek to follow the guidelines for ethical journalism and seek to report the truth. Also a big part of being a responsible journalist is simply reporting and not helping formulate opinion or influencing it in anyway. Although not having a bias is a hard thing to do, being a journalist means not allowing your biases to leak into your stories. Unfortunately in our research on this topic we found many things that helped us to decide that the news networks that covered this story were irresponsible.
