Thread: Claim: McFeely: Valley News Live gets story wrong, fans Islamophobic flames (ALIPAC)

McFeely: Valley News Live gets story wrong, fans Islamophobic flames

By Mike McFeely Today at 6:10 a.m.






Email Sign up for Breaking News Alerts
It was quite a story Valley News Live reported after a horrific incident occurred in Mapleton, N.D.: An alleged rapist had uttered the words "Allahu Akbar" while assaulting a gas station employee.

It was the lead story on VNL that evening and anchor Andrea Larson opened the newscast thusly: "Court documents say the man accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a gas station worker uttered 'Allahu Akbar' during the assault, which means 'God is the greatest' in Arabic." Reporter Nicole Johnson repeated the information during her story.
It was a titillating, jarring tidbit about an already awful story. Given the raw tension over the threat of Islamic terrorism following the attacks in Paris, the idea of an alleged rapist named Abdulrahman Ali saying "Allahu Akbar" while committing an assault on a North Dakota woman added a whole different level of fear to those already wild-eyed about anything having to do with Islam.
Was this a terrorist attack? Some ultra right-wing websites picked up the story and soon enough headlines screamed things like, "MUSLIM MIGRANT BEATS, RAPES NORTH DAKOTA WOMAN WHILE CHANTING 'ALLAHU AKBAR.' "
It went viral. Valley News Live's video was being used everywhere, including on the YouTube channel of the viciously racist, anti-immigrant Americans for Legal Immigration political action committee.
There is just one, rather critical issue with Valley News' reporting that Ali used the religious phrase during the assault: It never happened.
It was sensational. It was juicy. It spread all over the Internet and got Valley News Live lots of publicity on nut-job websites.
But it did not happen.
The report from the Cass County Sheriff's Office, written by Cpl. Joe Hedin, was clear. After describing Hedin's and Deputy Jeff Arth's actions to aid the victim and take Ali into custody, the report says (capitalization Hedin's):
"While HEDIN was with ALI in the women's bathroom and still restraining him in the corner, ALI was mumbling. HEDIN couldn't tell what ALI was saying. HEDIN was unable to tell if ALI was speaking a different language or if ALI was mumbling English. During this time, HEDIN did understand one thing ALI said. While speaking, ALI uttered 'Allahu Akbar,' which, in Arabic, means God is the greatest."
Read more of Mike's columns here
It couldn't have been more clear. Ali was with an officer when he mumbled "Allahu Akbar." The report, in fact, said the victim had already been removed from the room when Ali said it. Nowhere in the sheriff's report did it indicate Ali said "Allahu Akbar" during the assault.
Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney, contacted last week about the discrepancy, checked with the officers involved and said the TV story was "inaccurate according to our information."
So what happened? Did the reporter make a mistake, as sometimes happens? Or was it something else?
We'll never find out publicly from Valley News Live. When I contacted Johnson, the reporter, she said she probably wasn't supposed to talk with me "because you're with The Forum." I emailed her later and received no response.
So I left a phone message with news director Ike Walker, which was not returned, and sent him an email asking for clarification. Walker responded that the original story on the VNL website had been corrected (It had been "updated" — using VNL's term — shortly before Walker sent me his response). A follow-up email sent to Walker asking if VNL was going to run an on-air correction, and seeking details on how this mistake happened, was not answered.
Disclaimer: I work for Forum Communications, which owns WDAY-TV, a competitor of Valley News Live. So there will be those, probably including Walker, who say this is nothing more than an attempt to smear VNL. My response would be: They are doing a fine job of smearing themselves.
If this was nothing more than a mistake by a reporter, isn't that a rather egregious error to make? Isn't that the most basic element of a story centered around a man saying "Allahu Akbar" while he's attempting to rape her — that he actually said it to her, when she was in the same room? And shouldn't the station do everything it can to make sure the public knows it made such an appalling mistake?
This error matters, hugely. It changes the entire narrative. It goes from a slightly odd crime story to one that carries the implication of terrorism, religious fanaticism, Islamic extremism and even the dangers of unchecked immigration.
Having Ali saying "Allahu Akbar" while committing the assault turned the story into something completely different. It was spicier, scarier, more tantalizing.
A cynic would say it fit the footprint of Valley News Live's frontal assault on refugees and Lutheran Social Services. A cynic would say it led to a lot more Facebook comments, website clicks and video views.
A cynic would say Walker has a history of not being bothered by much of anything other than his station getting attention. Sources at VNL told me he was giddy after talking head Chris Berg made his infamous "white man keeping the brown man down" comment, because it was all over the Internet.
You can't buy that kind of publicity. Right, Ike?
All we have in this latest case is our cynicism, because VNL isn't giving us anything else. Chances are it was just an innocent mistake. Right, Ike?

http://www.inforum.com/news/3908010-mcfeely-valley-news-live-gets-story-wrong-fans-islamophobic-flames

So Mike McFeely thinks this violent rapist saying Allahu Akbar to the arresting officer is some kind of argument that Ali did not say the same while perpetrating the rape!

I hope that Mike McFeely's readers or listeners correct him for his efforts to support a violent rapist like this.

Yes, ALIPAC helped make this qualified news report go viral on the Internet because our supporters want to prevent American citizens from being the victims of rape, assault, and murder from illegal aliens and Muslim refugees turning to terrorism.

That does not make us...

the viciously racist, anti-immigrant Americans for Legal Immigration political action committee.

Why does Mike McFeely have such harsh and false language for our peaceful and caring organization trying to defend Americans and such support for Muslim rapists like Abdulrahman Ali !?!?!?

Here is the video we circulated for your review...




W

Thank you William! So many times you are the only one standing up for Americans and others brutally attacked and/or murdered by people who shouldn't even be in our country.