MADISON, Wis. –The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and much of the mainstream media just got badly burned in their rush to report apparent hate crimes on the Beloit College campus.
In many ways, once again, they burned themselves with their own biases.
There was plenty of overheated coverage this week of an apparent hate crime that turned out to be bogus – as has too often been the case in this era of knee-jerk journalism.
On Monday, news outlets across Wisconsin – and the nation – posted the story that “two Beloit students in residence halls were targets of hate crimes.”
Beloit College officials first reported that an anti-Semitic note was placed under a student’s door last Friday. Early Monday morning, an anti-Muslim threat was found spray-painted on another student’s residence hall door, and a swastika on a nearby wall.
Beloit security reportedly discovered the words, “Die,” “Sand ****** go home,” and #Muslimban in red paint on the student’s door on the second floor of the college’s Bushnell Hall.
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