I don’t know why, but this story made me laugh:
NASCAR and Texas Motor Speedway officials were surprised by NBC’s admission that it planted Muslim-looking people in the crowd at last weekend’s DirecTV 500 in Martinsville, Va.
“If this is really true and NBC has anything to do with this, I question the mentality of that,” said Bruton Smith, the owner of TMS and chairman of Speedway Motorsports Inc. “They’re creating news. I thought they were supposed to be reporting it.”
Ramsey Poston, NASCAR managing director of corporate communications, confirmed that NBC had a film crew from Dateline NBC and three people wearing Muslim apparel last Saturday and Sunday at Martinsville Speedway to gauge the fans’ reaction to them.
Poston said at 3 p.m. the three in Muslim apparel went to the ticket office and pulled out prayer mats and began to pray.
“Everything that was observed that I’ve seen and heard from is that people barely noticed them,” said Poston, who found out about NBC’s actions Monday morning. “There was virtually no reaction from the fans.”
If NBC really wants a story, they should plant some people wear Pitt jerseys at a WVU game. They would not go unnoticed.
jon
Muslim-looking people? Not an issue.
Muslim-looking people in Jeff Gordon gear?
I don’t know about Texas, but in Talladega, NBC would have had their riot in a hot second…
demimondian
What did they expect? That Joe and Jane Sixpack would turn on their neighbors as they prayed? What would that have shown? For that matter, what does the fact that nothing happened show?
And what does the fact that NBC didn’t report this non-event not mean?
Brian
NBC’s action is not really surprising, given that it is populated by the same types who believe that racism and/or sexism guides every action in this country, and that there are cultures within the country that breed and nurture this behavior. Reality of course never resembles the ideological bubble they live in, so their news “gotchas” can be ridiculed as the lame slander pieces they are, unless they turn into character assassinations.
But, hey, who the hell cares about assassinating anyone’s character when the subjects are those NASCAR honkies or religious fundies? In those cases, it’s just Cracker Candid Camera.
Paul Wartenberg
You know what? It’s good that there was no reaction. All this shows is that rednecks can be cool, like Willie Nelson cool, about sh-t like that.
I dunno, but if it was me there, I’d have gone out of my way to check that the guys were praying in the right direction. “Dudes, Mecca’s a little more to your left…”
Brian
Maybe NBC could follow lacrosse teams around and plant black strippers in their parties and see what hysterics occur. You know, like a white player taking a leak with the bathroom door opened a crack, and the stripper getting a glimpse of his freckled dick, which is then followed by a call to 911 by the stripper from a corner phone booth, laying claim to forced rape. ‘Cause, you know, despite civil rights and all that, whitey’s still always out to show the darkies who their massa is. That, and the insufferable patriarchy that pollutes even the young collegiate mind. No DNA would be needed here, because the assumed crime is crime enough. It MUST be true. (cough, cough…Tawana Brawley…cough, cough).
Just another insane idea of mine for Cracker Candid Camera. It’s almost too crazy a scenario to ever be realized, right?
Brian
Mark my words. This will become a localized race story in New York. Uppity black labor boss, just fightin’ for his troops, gets jailed and fined by The Man.
Off topic, I know, but I’m never kind to race baiters, and can smell ’em three thousand miles away.
DougJ
This really bothers me. The idea that because someone likes NASCAR they’re likely to be a racist is just pure bunk. I have an Iranian friend from Paris (Iranian descent, spend her teen years in Paris) who lives in the deep south and insists that the deep south is infinitely more tolerant of people of Arab descent than Parisans are. She seemed puzzled that I would even be surprised by this.
VidaLoca
my first — cynical — reaction was that she’s not setting the bar very high there if recent news reports can be believed. Still I agree, I can’t see any purpose served by what NBC was doing; it seems to be stereotyping to me.
VidaLoca
my first — cynical — reaction was that she’s not setting the bar very high there if recent news reports can be believed. Still I agree, I can’t see any purpose served by what NBC was doing; it seems to be stereotyping to me.
ppGaz
Shorter NBC story: Nothing happened.
The Other Steve
NBC is run by Republicans?
link
link
yet another jeff
Nice…always amusing when someone fails to fall for a planned entrapment. Can’t help wonder if this is NBC being petty about this being their last season for carrying NASCAR races. Then again, they’ve always found subtle ways to insult their audience during their coverage.
Easyliving
“She (Laura Bush) also said it’s “possible” that questions about Miers’s intellectual qualifications are sexist in nature…”
So TOS, are you claiming Laura is guided by sexism and rascism for saying something is “possible?”
Your charges don’t withstand even cursory scrutiny. You’re a mental midget with little evidence to back up your equivocal, paranoid ramblings.
Krista
Exactly. One has nothing to do with the other.
Davebo
Dougj
Anyone is more tolerant of ANYONE than Parisans are. Hell they can’t even stand each other.
Shame too. A beautiful city desperately in need of a population tranplant.
Steve
I don’t have a problem with this type of reporting, although I deplore anything that gives Michelle Malkin a chance to gin up the faux outrage. What I do have a problem with is not running a story because no one took the bait. If there’s rampant racism against Arabs going on in America, that’s a story; but if Arabs are considered mainstream and don’t raise an eyebrow then that’s a story too. NBC should be happy to run a tribute to how tolerant and inclusive American society is.
The Other Steve
No, that was Brian’s claim.
Oh dear. Brian, did you hear what this guy had to say about you?
Krista
I found that most of the Parisiens that I dealt with were very kind. We were in a gift shop, purchasing some souvenirs, and the bf’s grandfather was eyeing a pretty trinket, and the merchant told him to keep it. I thought at first it was a setup, and that we’d wind up in a French jail, but no…he let him keep it and smiled and waved as we left.
So there are always exceptions, mes amis.
Vlad
Personally, I find the lack of a reaction to be reassuring. It’s nice to have some confirmation that even though our leaders are crazy, most people in the country are still OK.
bud
“If NBC really wants a story, they should plant some people wear Pitt jerseys at a WVU game. They would not go unnoticed.”
How about vice-versa (WVU jerseys at a Pitt game)? In my day, I’d expect sneering condescension, but I don’t know about today.
(Full disclosure: Pitt alum…from probably before you were born.)
Skip
Another potential MEMRI news flash gone awry.
Meanwhile, you all should have been the Washington Nationals game where Dick Cheney threw out the first pitch. The boos were audible six blocks away. I never heard anything like it.
Krista
That’s actually kind of pitiful.
neil
So you’re telling me that people who pay to watch high-speed car wrecks aren’t shocked by the sight of Muslims? Go figure on that one.
Maybe they should plant the hidden camera in a Muslim’s turban to capture the dirty looks he gets.
The Other Steve
You mistook the cheering for boos.
They only booed him when he missed the strike zone.
BIRDZILLA
When the NBC peacock crosses the race track lets everybody accelerate ROAD KILL THE NBC PEACOCK
Kimmitt
The fact that NBC didn’t report it is really sad. The lack of a response would have been a great story.
jg
Wow. I can’t believe NBC chose an event in the heartland of america, a NASCAR auto race, to guage the average americans reaction to muslims.
If I was NBC I would have picked Berkeley.
demimondian
Ahh, there you lefty adademic birkenstock-wearing t-shirt shaving professors go again, measuring all Americans by your own standards.
Next thing you’ll know, you guys’ll start making claims about universal law…and we all know where that leads…
BIRDZILLA
NBC the Nazi Broadcasting Company