Friday, April 07, 2006
VIRGINIA MAT STRATEGY
NBC’s NASCAR stunt Muslims sure worked it hard in Martinsville:
People at the race say the group pulled out prayer mats at one point and started to pray.
You can almost hear the producers: “No reaction? There’s been no racist reaction from those neanderthal NASCAR bigots? Goddammit it to hell ... OK. OK. We can save this. Let’s go for the prayer mats. Radio those bastards to get out the prayer mats! Let’s see Mr and Mrs Red State Islam Hater cope with prayer mats! Ha!” Interestingly, it seems NBC types have attemped this sort of prank before:
When we talked to Ahmed Sidky and Adam Daken, both Muslim students at Virginia Tech, they were wearing blue jeans and casual shirts. They say they’ve been asked to participate in experiments, like Dateline’s, before but said no.
Nice line from Daken:
"They stereotype both parties now. Muslims looking like Arabs and Americans in the south going to a NASCAR race."
We now cross to Hugh Hewitt and Mark Steyn:
Hewitt: Now what do you make of NBC going down to Martinsville in an attempt to bait the NASCAR fans into being anti-Muslim?
Steyn: Well, you know, I think that’s very revealing. They essentially say we think these people are prejudiced, and we want to set up a sting to prove that redneck, white, American males are prejudiced. Who are the prejudiced people here? It’s NBC. It’s NBC, who are looking to come up with a set-up to prove their prejudices. And I think this would be fine if it went both ways. I think it would be great, for example, if they could find a couple of Jewish producers, say, Jewish NBC producers who would like to wander around Riyadh, and see how they get treated, as Jews in Riyadh, or Gaza, say.
It might be even more fun to send NBC producers to Martinsville. Michelle Malkin, who broke this story and is driving it Dale Snr-style to the finish line, has continual updates.
UPDATE. Driver Jimmie Johnson might be an InstaPundit reader:
There is, however, one case that Johnson joked would be sure to start a confrontation.
"If they went and harassed a Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan wearing a Jeff Gordon T-shirt,” Johnson said, “there’d be a fight."
UPDATE II. You know what might make a fun sting piece for a rival network? Covertly film a pair of stunt Muslims as they innocently photograph NBC headquarters in Manhattan while, I don’t know, taking some notes or something. See how long it takes before NBC reacts ...