Sensational!: Reporting On "The Ground Zero Mosque"
The Washington Post just reported that NY’s local government is considering moving the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” to an alternate location. Gov. David Paterson is set to meet with the imam and developer of the proposed mosque “later this week” to discuss the potential change. A spokesperson for the Governor said: “We are working with the developers on a staff level but there have not been any formal discussions between the Governor and Imam or developer. However, we expect to have a meeting scheduled in the near future.”
The news comes at a time when many media outlets — or, in some cases, the pundits or experts whom they’ve interviewed — have been fueling the controversy surrounding the mosque by saying that it will be built “at Ground Zero.”
The Upshot took a look at how several outlets have been reporting on the proposed Islamic community center, known officially as “The “Park51” project, which is currently planned to be built two blocks from where the Word Trade Center towers once stood. The New York Times, for example, while not having formal guidelines in place on how to refer to the mosque, has been careful in its phrasing lest it mislead or confuse readers. Explains the paper’s standard editor, Phil Corbett:
To call it the Ground Zero Mosque not only would give you the impression that it’s on the site of the Trade Center, but it might even give you the further impression that it’s part of the rebuilding process to that site.
MSNBC, meanwhile, allows phrasing to be determined on a show-by-show basis and CNN anchors refer to written copy that specifies the project as including “an Islamic center that includes a mosque that is near Ground Zero, or is two blocks from Ground Zero.”
Many other outlets have chosen to simply, an inaccurately, dub the project “the Ground Zero mosque,” including the Associated Press, the Huffington Post, the Washington Post, Fox News, New York Daily News, Politico, Aol, and The Upshot’s own parent, Yahoo.
