NBC News Plants "Muslim" Ringers at Nascar Race
NASCAR on Wednesday expressed outrage at reports that NBC's Dateline had sent "Muslim-looking men" to a race in an effort to film crowd reaction to them with hidden cameras. NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston told the syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin, "It is outrageous that a news organization of NBC's stature would stoop to the level of going out to create news instead of reporting news." NBC, whose contract to televise NASCAR events expires this year and is not being renewed, responded in a statement, "We were intrigued by the results of a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll and other articles regarding increasing anti-Muslim sentiments in the United States. It's very early on in our newsgathering process, but be assured we will be visiting a number of locations across the country and are confident that our reporting team is pursuing this story in a fair manner."