Well, it seems that NBC News division is no longer in the business of only reporting news, they actually wish to be involved in making the news as well. It would seem that NBC believes that there is a huge anti-Muslim bias in this country and they wish to prove it. This last weekend while the NASCAR circuit was in Martinsville, Virginia, NBC wanted to catch this anti-Muslim bias in action. See Story.

Well not only did the NASCAR fans not react as NBC expected, it seems that NBC was all wrong about the fans. No one was hassled, except of course, the anti-Gordon bias that is always in effect, but that no incidents of any kind, including name calling or threats or any form or abuse was committed.

So much for the news not being biased. I guess it was just too much for NBC to believe that NASCAR fans are not all Red-Necks. So much for all those journalism degrees and years of higher education. Their actions just go to prove how far out of the mainstream the media remains. Tsk Tsk.

dmk

That is interesting.

But I'm not all that surprised that any news organization would think this of Nascar considering the great lengths Nascar has gone through, via advertizing, to try to attract minority fans lately.

Texas this weekend I see!! That will be nice after the shorter tracks.

I like Texas Motor Speedway.

NASCAR has gone through advertising to attract fans because of their potential for growth. The beauty of NASCAR is that it is open to anyone. Bill Lester was able to qualify to race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. What a performance by Bill Lester. See those that are new to racing know about the Nextel Cup and all the big name drivers, Earnhardt Jr, Gordon, Johnson, Stewart and the likes. But those of us who have been fans also follow the Busch series, the Craftsman Truck series, ARCA racing, and even IRL (Indy Race League). All these series have great minority drivers. Lester regularly runs in the truck series. This year Erin Crocker, a woman, is driving in the Trucks and will debut in the Busch series later this month. Crocker has paid her dues racing in ARCA before moving up to Trucks and now Busch. Lester has been racing for several years in the Truck series and has earned a Sponsor for several Nextel Cup races this year.

NASCAR also has several black drivers in development deals with major teams. Including a 15 year old with Hendricks MotorSports.

The beauty of racing is that anyone can earn their way into a race. Although 35 spots are taken by owner's point and 1 spot by the past champion spot, each week there are 7 spots that drivers can compete for and earn a spot. That is how Lester made it into the Atlanta race.

NASCAR has always embraced its fans and drivers, regardless of sex, color or age. Only NBC and all those highly intelligent liberals who work there would think that NASCAR would discriminate. That is why this is a major story. NASCAR has worked hard to attract fans of all kinds, sometimes even damaging relationships with longtime fans by cancel races on the old circuit to better expand to meet the demand. We lost the Southern 500 so we would not offend, we have expanded to tracks in Kansas, Texas, Michigan and California. Hell even New York City and now Washington State are vying for tracks. To expand we have removed such tracks as Darlington, and eliminated races at other North Carolina tracks. NASCAR is breaking its southern roots and expanding, too bad NBC is still mired in its groupthink and discrimination. It would seem that all us Rednecks are not as backwards as all those city folks believe.

By the way, the short tracks are great. I love the rubbing and the crashes, Texas, there are too few tight spots and not of crashes, and races soon become follow the leader.

dmk

ok i think NASCAR gets a bit boring , but then i don't really get a chance to follow it.

Regarding NBC, its really awesome that they were proven wrong. However the fact is that a huge part of the american population is greatly influenced by the infamous FOc "News" network. So to assume that a portion of the american public is biased against minorities really isn't a far fetched theory. The target group that NBC identified was wrong. BUt the assumption that such groups or social strata exist, is not.

What NBC was did is not news making. This is what you call participant observation. Fact is that the only thing they did was take muslim looking people and followed them. Muslim looking people might go there without NBC on their tails, but that just wouldn't get reported. The story here is the behaviour of the fans. And in the case of NASCAR its really good to hear that their research came to nothing. But don't you think those muslim looking people ARE gonna be harrassed somewhere. That's not NBC doing that. That's the bigots messing with the muslim looking people (same muslim looking people who might one day decide to go somewhere wihtout NBC)

OK, so... NBC had a hypothesis, and it was disproven. I fail to see what NBC did wrong. Now, if they had gotten results that pointed to NASCAR fans not being anti-Muslim, and had portrayed them as anti-Muslim, that would have been wrong. Otherwise, what happened is just journalism.