So this happened on CNN Monday: CNN's Carol Costello asked Hamtramck, Michigan Mayor Karen Majewski, "You govern a majority-Muslim-American city. Are you afraid?" Thus confirming CNN is the absolute worst non-Fox cable news network in America.
Ms. Majewski was not pleased with the question, to say the least.
"I was very surprised," Majewski said of Costello's questioning during a Monday interview with Media Matters. "What I had expected and what people usually ask me about is the diversity of this city and the changing demographics and something about the way that reflects changing American demographics in general. So the focus on terrorism and fear caught me completely by surprise."
"We just never think about it in those terms and we don't think of our Muslim neighbors in those terms," she added. "There may be tensions, but they're not tensions over something like terrorism." […]
Majewski speculated that the interview focus might have been prompted by a November 21 Washington Post article that she contends misstated that the city's population was now Muslim-majority, not just the city council, and raised unfounded terrorism fears.
"I think the misinterpretation came from the headline of The Washington Post article," Majewski said. "The article itself seemed truncated and cut off at the knees and the headline was completely misleading."
So there's two opportunities missed by our traditional media to present a balanced, positive take on race relations in America, and how the nation should be responding. Here was a chance to show diversity in the face of rising fearmongering and divisiveness. But that's not going to sell newspapers or scare an audience into watching a network, so that's not the story we're going to get.