NBC Slammed for Story About ‘Backlash’ Against ‘Muslim Americans’ After NYC Terrorist Attack

“How many stories do we see after a shooting that talk about the fear of backlash against gun owners?” Christopher Barron, president of Right Turn Strategies, tells TheWrap

Less than 24 hours after a terrorist attack left at least eight dead in New York City, NBC News is coming under fire for an online story about Muslims Americans bracing for possible “backlash” since the suspect is Muslim. 

“The media’s role should be to report the facts, not peddle politically motivated fan fic,” Christopher Barron, president of Right Turn Strategies and the co-founder of GOProud, told TheWrap.”How many stories do we see after a shooting that talk about the fear of backlash against gun owners? They are nonexistent.”

“Maybe we should focus on those who were brutally murdered than a backlash you hope manifests,” one online commenter wrote.

An NBC News spokesperson declined to comment.

Barron took issue with the story by NBC’s Chris Fuchs in his piece, “Muslim Americans Again Brace for Backlash After New York Attack.”

“In the wake of Tuesday’s attack, some Muslim Americans and community leaders expressed concerns over how their religion would be perceived and whether Muslims would become targets of violence,” Fuchs wrote.

The story is then mostly comprised of quotes from Muslim-Americans expressing their fears of being targeted after the attack that authorities say was perpetrated by an Uzbekistani native named Sayfullo Saipov.

“I feel I’m more worried about what the response from political leadership would be,” Umer Ahmad, a 43-year-old Muslim-American physician from New Jersey told NBC. “My biggest concern is that he’s readily identified as a Muslim and then that is extrapolated out to my own faith.”

The piece received sharp criticism — mostly from the conservative side of the Twitterverse.

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