{"id":80691,"date":"2015-11-29T08:32:27","date_gmt":"2015-11-29T16:32:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=80691"},"modified":"2015-11-29T08:33:04","modified_gmt":"2015-11-29T16:33:04","slug":"wp-the-liberal-media-has-no-idea-what-to-make-of-clock-kid-ahmed-mohamed-anymore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=80691","title":{"rendered":"WP: The liberal media has no idea what to make of \u2018clock kid\u2019 Ahmed Mohamed anymore"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington Post<\/a>: Once upon a time (like, two months ago), Ahmed Mohamed was a media sensation<\/a> on the left, a 14-year-old wunderkind<\/a> with a Muslim name who brought a homemade clock to his school in Irving, Tex., and was wrongly suspected of being a terrorist-in-training. A viral image of the scrawny, bespectacled science nerd in a NASA T-shirt and set of handcuffs symbolized the worst of American Islamophobia<\/a> \u2014 the idea that something as innocuous as a kid\u2019s inventiveness could be viewed as a potential threat.<\/p>\n

Riding a wave of support after his September arrest, Mohamed visited the White House<\/a>, United Nations<\/a> and Google<\/a>. He picked up the \u201cMuslim of the Year<\/a>\u201d award from the Council on American-Islamic Relations and a full scholarship<\/a> to the Doha Academy in Qatar, where he and his family have relocated.<\/p>\n

Now, against the backdrop of Islamic State attacks on Paris, a national debate about what to do with Muslim refugees from Syria, and a State Department travel warning throughout the holiday season, the \u201cclock kid\u201d is back in the news. Only this time, the liberal press has no clue how to cover him.<\/p>\n

The latest development in Mohamed\u2019s story is a lawsuit. His family is seeking $15 million<\/a> from the school district and the city of Irving, which opens him up to the charge, particularly from conservatives, that his public crusade against discrimination was and is motivated \u2014 at least in part \u2014 by money.<\/p>\n

The boy who initially appeared to be the perfect embodiment of a popular liberal narrative \u2014 hard-working, good-hearted Muslims face bigotry that should make us all cringe \u2014 is suddenly, well, more complicated…<\/p>\n

Many news outlets that covered Mohamed’s arrest extensively \u2014 particularly those that lean left \u2014 have reported on the lawsuit in relatively brief, straightforward terms or ignored it altogether.<\/p>\n

Vox, which published more than a dozen stories<\/a> about Mohamed in the three days after his arrest (I stopped counting), hadn\u2019t noted the lawsuit, as of Wednesday morning. Ditto for Mother Jones, which had five Mohamed articles<\/a> on the day when news of his arrest broke.<\/p>\n

The Huffington Post went with a single news report<\/a> on the lawsuit that recapped the circumstances of Mohamed\u2019s arrest but didn\u2019t mention the clock\u2019s appearance, the questions about how it was built, or the meeting with Bashir. There was no biting commentary on Islamophobia<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington Post: Once upon a time (like, two months ago), Ahmed Mohamed was a media sensation on the left, a 14-year-old wunderkind with a Muslim name who brought a homemade clock to his school in Irving, Tex., and was wrongly … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islam"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t