Florida Preacher's 'Koran Burning' Stunt Got Too Much Media Coverage

Terry Jones, the 58-year-old senior pastor of Dove World Outreach Center of Gainesville, Florida; an obscure religious congregation of 50 people, is known around the world. I've never met Reverend Jones, nor do I know if he is a sincere man or just what my grandmother would call "a jackleg preacher who stood too close to the hind end of a mule," but I do know that his plan to burn copies of the Koran on September 11, 2010, to protest the planned building of an Islamic Center or Mosque near Ground Zero in New York is about one of the dumbest stunts in a country known for some dumb stunts.

The outcry from Muslims around the world is all too predictable, and Jones' protests that he is not responsible for any violence visited upon innocent people because his announcement is as wrongheaded as the violence itself.

There has been all kind of commentary on this issue; some saying Muslims, many of whom tend to react violently at any insult to Islam, real or imagined, are to blame. Others place the blame at Jones' feet. Both are in need of some serious attitude adjustment, but another location at which fingers could be pointed is at the media who took an announcement by a nobody and spread it around the world, instead of putting it in the ash can where it rightfully belongs.

The U.S. Constitution protects freedom of speech and expression, if stupid, hateful stunts like that announced by Terry Jones. What is mind boggling and hard to comprehend is the thought process that led ostensibly mature, intelligent media people to give this nut a hearing and a forum in the first place, instead of just letting him and his 50 adherents have their little book burning ceremony in the obscure privacy of their nut house. Jones was unheard of until seven kids from his congregation wore T-shirts to school a year ago with the slogan "Islam is of The Devil" on them in red letters. Parents sued the school district for banning the shirts, and Jones apparently saw an opportunity to get even more publicity for his warped views.

The response to someone like the good reverend is the same you would use for a two-year-old who throws a temper tantrum at home. Put him in his room and ignore him until he screams himself hoarse. When he realized that his tantrum got no attention, maybe, just maybe he'd think twice before doing it again.

Whether or not Jones actually burns copies of the Koran are, at this point, irrelevant. The damage has been done, and the media is partly to blame for the mess.