Largest newspaper in TN, published full-page ad saying "Islam is going to detonate a nuclear device

[MelissaB]

This morning, the Nashville @Tennessean
— the largest newspaper in the state — published a full-page ad from a far-right client warning “Islam is going to detonate a nuclear device in Nashville, Tennessee.” It’s accompanied by photos of Donald Trump and Pope Francis.

Link to tweet

[Siwsan]

1. That seems quite irresponsible, irrational and, well, insane

[MelissaB]

2. An update from @Tennessean 's VP for news - calling ad "horrific and...utterly indefensible

An update from @Tennessean's VP for news - calling ad "horrific and...utterly indefensible in all circumstances."

Says paper should never have published the ad and that there is an investigation to see how it was published.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[Lars39]

4. John Siegenthaler, Sr is rolling in his grave

Good grief, this is going to get innocents killed.

[StarfishSaver]

17. I posted my comment before I saw yours

Glad to know I'm not the only one who knows about John Siegenthaler.

[volstork]

22. The Tennessean has fallen so far

since the days of Siegenthaler, Sr. It's little more thank a rag now.

[JHB]

8. A thorough investigation concludes...

..."They paid."

[crickets]

11. Exactly.

The ad ran twice. There's no way no one realized what it was, no excuse for it at all.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Oh, good grief! And there are some people who will believe this.

[MelissaB]

5. I personally know some who would/will.

[Liberal In Texas]

6. Well, guess they won't be now since "The Ministry" tipped them off!

Exposed all their plans!

[stillcool]

7. are we in a movie?

I half expect to go outside and see wagon trains, and spaceships.

[StevieM]

9. I'm actually quite impressed by this group. They referred to the "Democratic Party,"

not the "Democrat Party."

That is real progress for people like them.

[Jirel]

10. Dangerous lunatics.

Shame on the paper for taking money for that inflammatory, delusional trash.

[Drum]

12. Lol, as if "Islam" is one thing or entity?

[BComplex]

19. Islam is a religion. A "religion" doesn't perform acts. (Bombings.) People perform acts.

Muslims are people who practice that religion. A very small minority of them are radical political extremists, much like in Christianity. It has nothing to do with the basic teachings of those religions, although extremists try to make believe it is so.

Right wingers are so friggin' ignorant.

[Drum]

21. Yup exactly n/t

[lpbk2713]

13. The requests for subscription cancellations must have been overwhelming.

That would be the only reason they would respond this way.
They don't like it when you hit them in the wallet.

[Igel]

36. I can think of others. n/t

[ProfessorGAC]

14. Somebody's Ass Is Fired!

Or more than one. They could pay a Vanderbilt intern $36k a year and avoid a repeat.
Someone is advertising is either dumber than dirt, or a true believer.
Either way, they don't belong in journalism.
I say 3 people get canned over this.

[StarfishSaver]

15. The Tennessean used to be published by John Siegenthaler, one of the great liberal lions of our time

A truly great man. He must be spinning in his grave.

[PSPS]

16. English is not the native language of whoever wrote it.

Just in the first paragraph:

"We are under conviction"
"Islam"
"we feel under obligation to provide"
"can be demonstrated to be valid"
"Hopefully" (required thanks to Edwin Newman)
"is presented fully"

[moonscape]

20. What's wrong with hopefully? n/t

[PSPS]

24. You darn young kids and your not knowing about Edwin Newman!!1!!

'Hopefully' isn't really a word. Proper usage would be like this:

"Hopefully, it will come to pass" should be "We/I hope it will come to pass."

Newman, who was a long-time reporter for NBC, was also devoted to the proper use of words and grammar, and wrote books on the subject, the most widely known being "Strictly Speaking."

He had a sign outside his office at NBC that said, "Abandon hopefully all ye who enter here."

[whistler162]

26. Hopefully you are correct if not.......

[moonscape]

31. Not a youngun :) Knew and loved Newman ...

... but since 'hopefully' is in common parlance, and honestly I didn't realize its usage as an adverb beginning a sentence was so egregious, and English is my first language ... will thank you for bringing it to my attention but argue it should be taken off the list of things that would brand the writer a non-native English speaker

[csziggy]

28. And it is only addressed to "Citizen of Nashville" not to all citizens of Nashville

I wonder who the person is that it is meant to notify?

[Igel]

38. The reader ...

At least the reader who's not a collective reader or hearer.

I assume there must be at least one composite human out there who are a composite being.

[KatyMan]

29. Also "infer"

Shouldn't it be imply?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

32. There are plenty of native English speakers who use all of those phrases.

[Ms. Toad]

33. You apparently don't spent a lot of time reading things written

Last edited Sun Jun 21, 2020, 06:22 PM - Edit history (1)

by late college/early graduate school writers.

Many,many, many of them write gibberish.

Partly it is driven by minimum page lengths.

Writing in passive voice eats up more characters than writing in active voice.
A thesaurus is great for finding the longest word with a similar meaning - and since the thesaurus says it means the same thing you can jsut substitute it, right? (They all skip the step of checking the dictionary.)

A related form over function rule is they are told not to use the same word repeatedly - so thesaurus to the rescue again! Again, with no dictionary check to make sure using a substitute word makes sense in the context of the sentence.

Bottom line - it has been a long time since the majority of high school students were required to write documents of any substantial length. Writing takes practice. Many of just don't get practice at anything longer than 280 characters. (A bit of an exaggeration, but not much)

So I don't see ESL in that writing - I see the current generation of young adults.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

18. Cat's already out of the bag, folks. Better run out and empty those paper boxes.

Somebody's ass is going to be fired and quick.

The Tennessean and The Nashville Banner were the papers I read during my youth in TN. Tennessean "funny paper" was ritual Sunday after church reading.

If I recall correctly, The Tennessean was left-leaning and The Banner was right-leaning, but that was back when politics was still civil.


KY...........

[sarisataka]

23. I guess just to be on the safe side

I will make sure to not be in Nashville on July 18th.

Probably should also avoid travelling to Islam in case of a retaliatory strike. Is that located near Wakanda or Latveria?

[jmowreader]

34. It's on the Freedonian border, just north of Sylvania

[ExciteBike66]

25. I just want to point out that if this is a matter of Biblical prophecy...

then it would be the deity's will to have the bomb detonated, wouldn't it?

[Luciferous]

27. Seems extremely irresponsible to even run that ad...

[alp227]

30. Newspapers will take money from anyone, it seems

In an era combining readers preferring online sources of varying repute (as long as they don't have to pay) and the pandemic limiting the pool of advertisers more than ever.

[BGBD]

35. Context here

Middle Tennessee has a fairly robust Muslim population. This is the same place where there was some controversy a few years back about a mosque that was going to be built in Murfreesboro, where a large number of Somali refugees have settled over the past ~20 years. This mosque was vandalized at least one time that I remember after being built.

In short, Middle Tennessee and the Nashville Metropolitan area in particular has a large Muslim population and also a history of anti-Islamic activities. It's no isolated incident that this ad was run in this newspaper.

[Takket]

37. um.........

if they actually have this knowledge, isn't the appropriate course of action to notify the government, not take out an ad in a paper? Why are they not going to the FBI with this?

Rhetorical question