{"id":8369,"date":"2018-08-16T18:43:18","date_gmt":"2018-08-16T22:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncorv.com\/aaja_wp\/?p=8369"},"modified":"2021-01-06T19:39:21","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T00:39:21","slug":"aaja-mediawatch-and-matf-respond-to-new-mexico-compound-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncorv.com\/aaja_wp\/2018\/08\/16\/aaja-mediawatch-and-matf-respond-to-new-mexico-compound-coverage\/","title":{"rendered":"AAJA MediaWatch and MATF respond to New Mexico compound coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The Asian American Journalists Association\u2019s MediaWatch Committee and Muslim American Task Force are troubled by recent coverage of the New Mexico compound raid where authorities charged Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and four others with child abuse.\u00a0<\/p>

Wahhaj is the son of Siraj Wahhaj, a Muslim cleric who leads a well-known Brooklyn mosque. An online story by\u00a0CBS News\u00a0on Aug. 8<\/a><\/span>\u00a0reported that the imam \u201cwas on a list of people who\u00a0\u2018may be alleged as co-conspirators\u2019 to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing,\u201d as cited in court documents.\u00a0NBC\u2019s Today Show\u00a0on Aug. 9<\/a><\/span>\u00a0stated the mosque\u00a0\u201chas been linked to radicals in the past\u201d and the imam himself \u201cwas actually indirectly linked to the 1993 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>

We find this oversimplification problematic.\u00a0NBC fails to mention that Wahhaj was never charged in the WTC attack. And CBS\u2019s\u00a0description of the imam as a possible co-conspirator can leave readers with the wrong impression. Even the\u00a0United States Attorneys’ Manual<\/a><\/span>\u00a0generally recommends against naming unindicted co-conspirators.\u00a0<\/p>

Both NBC and CBS point to Wahhaj\u2019s past links to radicals but do not say anything about his work in the community as well as with the New York Police Department. The mosque has been considered a respected pillar in its community for many decades. CBS also fails to note there is no evidence that Wahhaj has anything to do with what happened at the New Mexico compound and in fact had been working with authorities to find his grandson who was believed to have been kidnapped by the younger Wahhaj.<\/p>

Upon discussion with AAJA, NBC has updated its story with an editor\u2019s note recognizing that it should have mentioned Wahhaj was not charged in the WTC attack. AAJA MediaWatch and Muslim American Task Force urge journalists to provide proper context when reporting on this story going forward, and we offer ourselves as a resource for further guidance.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Sincerely,<\/p>

AAJA MediaWatch<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Asian American Journalists Association\u2019s MediaWatch Committee and Muslim American Task Force are troubled by recent coverage of the New Mexico compound raid where authorities charged Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and four others with child abuse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"index","bgseo_robots_follow":"follow","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,46],"tags":[79,83],"class_list":["post-8369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-pr-statements","category-press-release-statements","tag-matf","tag-mediawatch"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ncorv.com\/aaja_wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/slack-imgs-1.com_.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncorv.com\/aaja_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncorv.com\/aaja_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncorv.com\/aaja_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncorv.com\/aaja_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncorv.com\/aaja_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8369"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncorv.com\/aaja_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8413,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncorv.com\/aaja_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8369\/revisions\/8413"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncorv.com\/aaja_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncorv.com\/aaja_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncorv.com\/aaja_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncorv.com\/aaja_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}