The Anti-Sharia Protests: A Few Questions for Nora Shelley, Patriot-News/PennLive Summer Intern
06/11/2017
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Journalism is hive-think. And what better way for an aspiring journalist to tune the buzz than by covering a "hate march"?

This coverage of an anti-sharia march in Harrisburg checked off so many of the groupthink boxes, I wondered: how long's our girl been at the reporter game?

There isn't room for hate anymore': Unity rally, protests held in opposition to anti-Sharia march

By Nora Shelly, [email protected], June 10, 2017

120 comments

The "Harrisburg March against Sharia" drew about 30 protesters to the capitol on Saturday, but not everyone opposing the march showed up on State Street.

More than a mile away, about 200 community members gathered in a unity rally at the Goodwin Memorial Baptist Church Family Life Center on Third Street. The event featured singing and speeches from various faith and community leaders.

Rev. Dr. James D. Jackson, Goodwin's senior pastor, said they wanted to "show a sign of support" for the community against the anti-Sharia march. There was such a strong showing of support, they had to bring out extra chairs to seat everybody, he said.

"It was a peaceful expression of unity against expressions of anti-unity," he said. "There isn't room for hate anymore. We have to learn to get along."

The unity rally was organized by the Community Responders Network, a Harrisburg-based anti-hate group. Ann Van Dyke, who helped organize the event, said the energy in the room was positive.

"So often, counter protests are focused on hating them more than they hate us," she said. "Our event didn't want anything to do with hate, it was about affirming equality and nonviolence."

The "Harrisburg March Against Sharia" was planned by ACT for America, who call themselves the "NRA of national security" and are classified as an anti-Muslim extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The group planned similar events in cities across the country Saturday. [More]

Nora Shelley, it turns out, hasn't been out there long. She's a student at Northwestern, where the journalism school, like those at Columbia, MU and a few others, churns out would-be MSMers aiming for glory.

Our girl is on her way. Dean Baquet, take note.

In the story, Shelley does not name or quote a single person associated with ACT for America. She relies exclusively upon the Southern Poverty Law Center for a quick, one-phrase dismissal of the group.

But there are plenty of quotes from the anti-anti-sharia protesters, loving descriptions, names, settings, etc.

The questions unasked:

  • What were the counter-protesters protesting, exactly? Do the anti-anti-sharia protestors SUPPORT sharia law for America?
  • Was young Shelley unable to speak to a single ACT for America protestor? If she couldn't for whatever reason, wouldn't that be good information for the story? As in, she tried and they wouldn't talk? The police blocked her?
  • They have a website. A woman named Brigitte Gabriel is the chairman — was she unavailable for a quote? A response to the SPLC?
  • The SPLC doesn't even provide a quote. Did young Shelley bother calling them and pressing them on their designation of ACT for America as a "hate group"?
I could go on, but for what? Modern journalism isn't just a joke, it's a dangerous fifth column. Trump was exactly right to call the media the enemy of America.

I want to know so much more. Not just about the "hate march", but about Nora Shelley.

  • Who are her editors at the Patriot-News? Did they approve her story? Ask questions of their own? Challenge her at all?
  • Who are her professors at Northwestern? Did they train her to churn out stories like this?
  • What interested her in journalism? Did she see it as a way to promote her anti-white worldview while getting paid?
My own left-wing journalism professors would have kicked my ass if I'd showed up to a "hate march" and hadn't bothered talking to any of the "haters." I guess things are different these days.
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