How the Media Marginalizes Muslims

In his commencement speech at Northwestern University in 2006, then-Senator Barack Obama averted the thinking of graduates from the federal deficit to something more central to the American spirit. "We should talk more about our empathy deficit -- the ability to put ourselves in someone else's shoes; to see the world through those who are different from us -- the child who's hungry, the laid-off steelworker, the immigrant woman cleaning your dorm room." It's likely the immigrant was from South America then, but today she might have been from Somalia. Or Syria. And we're trying to keep her out because we are growing frightened -- as a nation -- of Muslims. There are many forces pushing us in that direction. Consciously or unconsciously the news media is among them....