As Los Angeles correspondent for British leftist/Islamist newspaper The Guardian, Dan Glaister specializes in condescending “look at the stupid Americans” pieces. Yesterday he launched a sneering attack against LGF and Jihad Watch, for having the unbridled temerity to ask whether Sulejman Talovic could possibly have had Islamic motivations for his murder spree in Salt Lake City: Playing with fire.

The subheading for Glaister’s article:

Right-wing bloggers are attempting to smear Islam with the Salt Lake City tragedy - and are stirring up fear and hatred as a result.

His position seems to be that hot-tempered cowboy Americans simply can’t be trusted with information like this. And if you raise the question (even if you do it carefully, with disclaimers and question marks), you’re a hate-spewing bigot trying to stir up the idiot masses to do violence against peaceful, innocent Muslims. And sure enough, look what happened: the masses actually wrote angry emails! To a newspaper! The horror!

This is where the media are heading, and the British are getting there first. If you suspect Islamic terrorism when a Muslim commits mass murder, and say so publicly, you’re going to be attacked and derided as a bigot. The fact that Islamists launch mass murder attacks around the world nearly every single day is immaterial; the vital job of journalists is to make sure there is no “backlash,” and they’ll withhold information to prevent it.

Never mind that there has never been such a backlash, not even after September 11. Journalists like Glaister are sure there’s one just waiting to happen, and if it does, it will be the fault of those idiots who think facts and truth are important.

Here’s a quote from Glaister’s incoherent smear job; the guy with the “deer in the headlights” look is him:

Leading the charge has been Littlegreenfootballs.com, which opened its account of the “six minutes of horror”, by noting: “The media did everything they could to avoid mentioning it, but it’s confirmed today that the mass murderer who terrorized a mall in Salt Lake City was a Bosnian Muslim.”

In particular, Littlegreenfootballs upbraided Salt Lake’s Deseret News for failing to mention the killer’s religion in its early reports on the incident. The paper took issue with the allegations, printing an article detailing the reaction of “ultraconservative” bloggers and publishing some of the email threats it said it had received. The postings, wrote the paper’s Elaine Jarvik and Deborah Bulkeley, “have resulted in a barrage of vitriolic emails to the News from people either angry at the paper for not mentioning the religion of shooter Sulejman Talovic in Wednesday’s web edition, or certain that because Talovic is Muslim that he must be a terrorist.”

The emails included one from a person signed “MD, PhD” which read, “He was a Muslim terrorist and you know it you deceitful, cowardly liar.”

The paper went on to say that “there is no record that Talovic attended any of the mosques in the Salt Lake area”, before quoting the president of the Utah Muslim Forum to the effect that Talovic may have attended Eid prayers on a couple of occasions.

Littlegreenfootballs gleefully [Glaister doesn’t say how he measured my level of glee. —ed.] responded to the paper’s account of the mini-storm, declaring that, “This attack from the Deseret News confirms that they were deliberately trying to hide this information from you.”

“Please note,” wrote LGF’s Charles Johnson, “I have not expressed any opinion on whether the mall attack was an act of jihad, personal or otherwise. I’ve raised the issue, with good reason. But I have deliberately refrained from expressing a conclusion, because we obviously do not know enough at this point to do that.

”I have come to the conclusion, however, that the media are doing everything possible to hide connections to Islam in cases like this. It’s an absolutely predictable pattern, and they do it every time.“

Do you notice anything missing from this chihuahua-like attack? For example, a counter-argument? People like Glaister think it’s sufficient to simply quote statements and point disapprovingly. Why strain his logical faculties? All decent people will automatically agree with him, after all.

Naturally, the comments from Guardian readers to Glaister’s article are full of anonymous accusations that LGF is the home of Nazis, racists, etc.—but also a pretty good level of support.

Robert Spencer also responded: The Guardian sneers at LGF, Jihad Watch.