On Sunday, Nashville was alarmed after a major newspaper in Tennessee published a full-page ad in the form of an open letter addressed to the citizens of Nashville, which claimed that an-Islam initiated terrorist attack will happen in Nashville next month.
The said, "warning," which the paper's editor described as "horrific" was published on the Sunday edition of Tennessee's leading newspaper, The Tennessean. The paid ad told the people that the bombing would happen on the 18th of July
The ad was paid by the group Future For America who claimed that US President Donal Trump is the last American president and also has a picture of Trump and the pope. It also said that an attack which would carry out unspecified Islamic interests by first detonating a nuclear device in Nashville.
Before this, the group also had a previous ad which was published in the paper's Wednesday edition. The ad said that the group wants to warn people of forthcoming events so they will be able to make decisions.
Meanwhile, The Tennessean stated that the ad was a clear violation of the paper's standards against hate speech. According to the Editor and Vice President of The Tennessean, Michael A. Anastasi, the sales and news departments of the paper run independently of each other.
Moreover, Anastasi said that there could have been a clear breakdown of the usual process which scrutinizes the ads for publishing. He also said that this incident has called their attention that they should be focused more on their advertising content.
He also said that the crime is indefensible and that there was no argument that it was wrong and should not have been published in the first place. In addition, he said that the wrongful publication of the ad has caused hurt within members of the community and even their own employees.
Anastasi also emphasized that the publication of the ad was very inconsistent with what the Tennessen stands for as an institution.
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Sales executives of the paper have also already ordered the removal of the ad on future editions of the paper.
Kevin Gentzel, chief revenue officer of the company which owns The Tennessean, Gannett stated in a tweet that the matter is already being discussed and investigated inside the company.
Two ads ran this week in the Tennessean that clearly violate our advertising standards. We strongly condemn the message and apologize to our readers. We are immediately investigating to determine how this could have happened:https://t.co/d6tBk6epOv — Kevin Gentzel (@KevGentzel) June 21, 2020
Islamic relations council call for updated policies.
According to CBS News despite the fact that they appreciated the move of The Tennessean in investigating and pulling the offensive ad, Ibrahim Hooper, spokesperson for Council on Islamic-American Relations stated that CIAR encourages the implementation of updated policies and train The Tennessean staff in order to ensure that hate incidents like this do not happen in the foreseeable future.
As of the moment, it remains unknown how much the group Future for America paid to have the Islamophobic ad published in the paper.
Based on statistics by the FBI, in the year 2018, Tennessee has recorded at least 170 hate crimes.
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