AP, New York Times: While You Are Correcting the Record About the Ground Zero Mosque ...
Stop with the "New York" Giants, "New York" Jets, and "Washington" Redskins.
BY Daniel Halper
The
AP and
New York Times have decided to avoid using the term the "Ground Zero mosque." Why? Well, because the proposed 'Islamic cultural center' is not
just a mosque (though it would contain a mosque) and because it's not
right at Ground Zero (but a whole two blocks from Ground Zero).
Allow me to submit, in the name of accuracy and integrity in journalism, a few corrections for the Associated Press and
New York Times to consider:
?
Both consistently (and erroneously)
call a football team that is housed in New Jersey the
New York Giants (emphasis is my own).
Correction: The New York Giants are not in New York. To call them the ?New York? Giants is itself a disgrace. Please correct the record immediately. I?ll defer to the map:
Wherein A is where the football team plays (in the Meadowlands, New Jersey) and B is the line dividing the states of New Jersey and New York. Driving distance: Approximately 6 miles.
I propose, for the sake of accuracy and integrity, that the AP and
New York Times call the New York Giants the ?Giants Located Near New York.?
? The
New York Times and
AP shamefully commit the same fallacy when referring to that other New Jersey football team ? the Jets ? which they call the "New York Jets." The Jets play in the same stadium as the Giants, so the map above serves as a good reference.
Proposed correction: How about, for the sake of consistency, the "Jets Located Near New York."
? The
New York Times and
AP, again, refer to a football team by its wrong location. The "Washington" Redskins do not play in Washington, D.C. They are housed in Landover, Maryland. I'll defer to the map:
Wherein A is where the football team plays (in Landover, Maryland) and B is the line dividing the state of Maryland and Washington, D.C. Driving distance: Approximately 6 miles.
Proposed name, for the sake of accuracy: The Landover Redskins. Now that's a team I could get behind.
To be fair to the
New York Times and AP, there are numerous examples of places that are located near, but not in, the location that their name indicates.
Take, for example, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. In Washington, D.C.? Nope.
It's in Arlington, Virginia.
What about Washington Dulles International Airport? Not in Washington, D.C., either. That's in
Sterling, Virginia.
Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport? You guessed it: Not in Baltimore or Washington, D.C. That would be
Hanover, Maryland.
Which brings us back to the Associated Press and
New York Times, and accuracy and integrity in journalism.
Apparently, with regard to the proposed Islamic cultural center that would house a mosque, Ground Zero only encompasses the exact site of the Twin Towers, where thousands of Americans were murdered by Islamists on September 11. If, say, a building were to have pieces from the wreckage, including the landing gear of a plane that was flown into the Twin Towers, on its site on September 11, then it still does not constitute being at Ground Zero. At least, that is the case with the site that this Islamic cultural center with a mosque would sit on.
Look, AP and
New York Times, I'm all for accuracy and integrity in journalism. All I ask is that you be consistent in your standards when covering the Giants, Jets, and Redskins.
