Economic impact of the Islamic center

September 10, 2010

Listen here. Aired on the Marketplace Morning Report.

I was wracking my brain for a new angle on the so-called 'ground zero mosque' story, when I started to think about the Marketplace angle. Anyone who's worked for Marketplace knows there's often a business angle lurking within a well-covered story. Then it hit me: how was the controversy surrounding the mosque affecting local store owners? Were they doing any more or less business given the extra people demonstrating nearby,and the tourists gawping at the site?

What was most striking to me was how few people wanted to touch this subject, even when all I was asking about was the economic impact.

(Photo: old Burlington Coat Factory, site of future Islamic cultural center. Taken at 9a.m., before the hordes of demonstrators and journalists showed up.)

 

Comments

[taobao buy]

there is no if, nice post and nice day,

[Asep]

Megan @ 26My father used to tell me that the press was hcsretiyally anti-Labor back in the 1940s, 50s, 60s & 70s, so what we are seeing in the Murdoch media is absolutely nothing that is new.I remember the years of the Whitlam government. There was a constant media barrage attacking Labor. I also recall media attacks on the Hawke gov't in its early years. By that stage the Australian had basically turned into a right wing rag (believe it or not it was once a more progressive paper). Why I kept reading it for years and years I don't know. But in the Howard years I gave up, By 2007 I'd even stopped reading it online, primarily for mental health reasons. As far as I'm concerned the Murdoch press is trash and the Oz/OO is the worst of the lot. Regular reading of it really does just addle the brain.I also can't be bothered with the ABC news/current affairs anymore either. I still look at the Age online and read a variety of blogs like LP and overseas online papers. But the behavior of the Murdoch press especially certainly justifies the dictum that I heard all the time in my youth never believe anything you read in the papers'.