S.I. Rosenbaum - Biased and Irresponsible
Recently, I called up one of your writers to complain about two of
the articles she had written for your publication, dated December
31st and January 1st. Both of the pieces insinuated that my appearance
on Fox News, an article I had written for Frontpage Magazine,
and my group's website, AmericansAgainstHate.com had caused death
threats to come to a Tampa-area Presbyterian-owned campgrounds (Cedarkirk)
and a Muslim organization (Muslim American Society of Tampa) that
was planning on using the campgrounds for a "retreat." This
was irresponsible journalism at its worst, as the violent nature of
the organization and its speakers were given a pass.
Following my complaint, the writer of the articles, Sara Rosenbaum,
sent me an e-mail saying that she wanted to do a piece on me. I agreed,
understanding that, given the past two, it was probably going to be
biased against me, and unfortunately, I was correct. In 'Are bloggers
against hate, or feeding it?' dated January 16th, once again, Rosenbaum
insinuated that I had caused the threats. She went as far as to say
that images placed on my group's website had been responsible for
death threats "pouring [sic] in to the Tampa Muslim American
Society." No mention was made of the material found on MAS-Tampa's
website discussing the murder of Jews or about the waging of holy
war against Christians and Jews. No mention was made of the fact that
one of the speakers of the "retreat," Mazen Mokhtar, had
created a website that raised funds and recruited terrorists for Al-Qaeda
and the Taliban, or that his website was also used as a portal to
the official site of Hamas. All of this information was presented
to Rosenbaum, but once again, I was the bad guy, and the terrorists
were given a pass.
Miss Rosenbaum devoted much of her article to quoting Ahmed Bedier,
a spokesman for the organization CAIR. She quotes him as calling me
a "vigilante" and a "bigot." She quotes him as
saying that I am "spreading lies," when she knows that I
put extensive links to source material in every article that I write
and every press release that I send out. None of this was challenged
by Rosenbaum. Nowhere does she say that this man is a member of a
group that is the defendant in a 9/11 lawsuit, a group whose former
representatives include those that have been convicted in and/or deported
from the United States for terrorist activity, a group that was created
by a front for Hamas. Nowhere does Rosenbaum mention that Bedier recently
stated that, prior to 1995, there was "nothing immoral"
about Palestinian Islamic Jihad. She gave him a pass as well.
To many readers, Rosenbaum made it seem as though I was using my
feelings towards the anti-Semitism I experienced growing up as a catalyst
for my present activities. Nothing could be further from the truth,
as none of the incidents I cited had anything to do with the Muslim
community. Rosenbaum also laced her article with inaccurate information.
She stated that I was considering contacting an old Palestinian friend
of mine but then I "thought better of it." I never said
that I was not going to contact this individual, who happened to be
my best friend in high school. That was fabricated by Rosenbaum to
bolster her story and to vindicate her bias.
My work has contributed greatly to the safety and security of America.
From what she has written, by making light of my work and by giving
a forum to those that threaten American society, it appears Miss Rosenbaum
has shown that she is oblivious to the threat of terrorism. In doing
so, her distortions, which were spun as fact, have misled the readers
of the St. Petersburg Times. Miss Rosenbaum owes me and all
of those counter-terrorism experts, which she derisively labeled and
dismissed as "bloggers," an apology. This includes Robert
Spencer, an accomplished author whose present book about Islam was
on the New York Times Best Seller list for 15 weeks.
In the future, the St. Petersburg Times should thoroughly
scrutinize and 'fact check' its writers' work, so that your publication
does not become synonymous with this type of sloppy journalism.
Sincerely,
Joe Kaufman
Chairman
Americans Against Hate