An American Heroine: Pamela Geller, Essay Example

In today’s economy, there is a vast array of news around the entire world. Just about every hour on the clock, some kind of news is surfacing across multiple media platforms. These media platforms can come in many forms from web, social media, televised news broadcasts, radio news, pod cast news, newspapers, and academic studies. It is very important to have such media outlets that can effectively relay current and ongoing news to the general public so that they may be fully aware of what exactly is happening in the economy and in the world. Without media outlets to convey news to the general public, everybody would be completely lost and misinformed due to lack of information. This would make it hard for everybody to make life decisions because many of these important decisions are dependent on the accuracy of current events, stories, and news.

Take for example; an investor may want to purchase a certain amount of stock in a specific publically traded company. However, if this given investor is unaware of the current situation and financial standing of that publically traded company which he has an interest in, then purchasing stock in that company may turn out to be a bad decision and can easily lead to unfavorable financial losses. Any investor will want to know the current news and financial standing of any company which they have interest in before they invest their own hard earned money into it. They can only have such valuable information if the media and news outlets convey it to them accurately.

In order for any of these media or news outlets to operate successfully in relaying factual and current information to the general public, they require the profound and adequate work of journalists. It is a journalist’s job to seek out information relating to research, current events, interviews, and scientific studies.

All of the information obtained from these sources must be fully accurate and factual. Interviews must be recorded word for word or verbatim exactly as the interviewee speaks. It is so important for a journalist to get all of the information accurately recorded and makes the facts clear. This is primarily because anybody who is receiving such information must be able to trust that it was recorded accurately. The general public does not want to be given inaccurate or untruthful information, and they depend on the journalists working for any form of news outlets or media to provide them with the most accurate and factual information on any given subject, story, study, or current event.

There is not much room for opinion based news reports in the field of journalism. However, some journalists have a way of relaying information to the general public along with an input of their own perspective, views, and opinions on the information which they are presenting to their audience. This form of journalism does not necessarily mean that the information which is being presented to the audience is in any way inaccurate or based on a certain opinion of the writer.

This form of journalism is simply the process of providing accurate and truthful news to an audience, but with the supplement of the journalists’ professional opinions about such facts, stores, and news. This way of providing news and information to an audience with a supplemented opinion usually comes in the form of a professional critique. Critiquing of such news and current event stories is mostly popular in American politics.

One very popular and important journalist who is present in American politics and economic research is political activist Pamela Geller. Pamela Geller is currently 57 years old and resided in New York City where she lives and works. She is an American activist and a political journalist who specializes in many ongoing issues with economics and stories in politics. Geller is mostly popular and known for the stories and reports she writes about her oppositions regarding the Islamic state and military extremists. Geller is currently serving as the president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative. Geller actually founded this organization along with her partner Robert Spencer. This organization was considered as a kind of hate group, specifically as an anti-Muslim hate group. It was the Southern Poverty Law Center that regarded the American Freedom Defense Initiative as a kind of hate group because Geller is known for being an anti-Muslim due to the militant extremism that is associated with it. These Muslim and Islamic issues surrounding military extremism and Gellers views towards it have imposed a lot of controversy relating to her as well as the topics at hand.

This kind of controversy was very visible in 2013 when the United Kingdom and the British Government denied Geller an entry into the country because they felt that her being there would portray an unfavorable image due to her views on Muslims as well as Islamic State. Geller also was a co-author on a political book that carried a very controversial title. The title of the book was “The Post American Presidency: The Obama Administration’ War on America” which was released back in 2010. This book became very controversial on a political status primarily because the contents of the book were mostly addressed towards the Obama administration in the form of a thorough critique regarding the economic system of free market, the right to freedom of speech, as well as issues surrounding foreign policy.

Geller always made sure in controversial topics such as the ones that can be found in this book comprised of factual information obtained through adequate and accurate research. If there was not enough adequate evidence to support any of her claims, Geller would not even bother to address the issue because she only dealt with facts whenever she would put a news story together, especially if it was as politically controversial as the ones found in this book.

Regardless of the way certain critics may view her as being controversial when it comes to the subject of politics, Geller has very good reasoning behind her profound work in the field of journalism and it actually derives from a more patriotic stand point. Geller spends a great deal of time researching and finding the facts on any given political issue that in some way or another, has a significant impact on the American people as well as the economy itself.

Geller is not simply voicing her own personal opinion on political issues such as Muslim militant extremists and the Islamic State, she is actually conveying information that is based on credible research, given facts, economic statistics, and the flat out truth which is what the American people want in any kind of news or informative report. It is because of this drive to find and put out the truth about ongoing issues in the country that pertain to the subjects which she along with the American people have an interest in that Geller can be regarded as a true American patriot of political journalism.

Geller attended her higher education at Hofstra University. However, she left the university before she could complete the full length of her college degree. This was because she committed most of her time conducting research and journalism work at the New York Daily News. Geller carries with her a high acumen for the field of business which is a primary reason for her success in politics as well as journalism. While Geller was working with the New York Daily News, she gained a remarkable amount of experience in the rigorous field of financial analysis. Having worked in the field of financial analysis, Geller was able to be fully aware of the economic trends that correlate with any given statistics and financial statues. Making herself very familiar with such complex information allowed her to relate the results of any given financials to the political decisions that were being made by the American government as well as state governments.

Knowing how to make such connections gave Geller the mental advantage of being able to see how well the federal government was running the country and making decisions because all of the consequences of any political decisions made showed in the financial data which she studied on an on-going basis during her time working at the New York Daily.

Whenever Geller studied specific forms of financial data in the numerous analyses she conducted, she was able to see how well the American tax dollars were being spent, and if such tax dollars were being spent appropriately all according to the research and financial data she analyzed. After spending enough time at the New York Daily News as an effective financial analysis, Geller moved on to another venture in the advertisement and marketing field of business. Because she was very familiar with the economic and political trends of business going on in the country, Geller established a news outlet for the New York Daily News.

Between the years 1989 through 1994, Geller published what was called the New York Observer, the news outlet she established which is one of her earlier works of journalism in relation to the political subjects which she analyzed and researched. Using the information and experience she had in her familiarity with financial analysis and politics, Geller used this news outlet to expose the truth about tax dollars, economic trends, and political news to her audience. It was this early work she began in the field of political journalism that gave Geller the opportunity to become the profound patriotic American journalist and activist that she is today.

All of her success in politics, journalism, and news can be attributed to her early works because that is what gave her a competitive advantage over other journalists and news outlets. Not only did her early experience give her the step up to her current success in journalism, but it was the fact that Geller made a genuine effort to make sure that whatever it was she was inscribing in her news stories consisted of the truth based on evidence, research, and accurate statistics.

In an interview with the Village Voice, which is a tabloid newspaper founded in 1955, Geller used her perspectives and feelings towards the 9/11 attacks to reason for her capital views on American politics. In 2004, Geller founded what was called the “Atlas Shrugs”. Atlas Shrugs was a web site blog that Geller used, and still uses to this day, to produce news stories relating to politics and the economic decisions of the US government relating to war, financial issues, elections, changes in law, among many other topics that relate the American economy.

The current web address to Pamela Geller’s Atlas Shrugs blog is located at pamelageller.com. The entire web blog she founded is dedicated to political news and journalism. There are links to news articles, various categories pertaining to those articles, quotable phrases, books related to the issues she discusses, as well as the press. Geller is able to conduct works of research and journalism on just about any subject, even those existing outside the field of politics. An example of Geller’s journalistic work outside of her specialty in politics is the remarkable news stories she does on business. A recent story Geller just wrote was based on the Coca Cola Company and how the Palestine Chief Executive Officer (CEO) has a desires to boycott the country of Israel.

By the year 2006, the Atlas Shrugs blog had already acquired thousands of subscribers who were interested in the news stories that Geller was working on. There was a high and consistent circulation of comments and questions from subscribers surrounding the news articles posted on her web site. The Atlas Shrugs really gained a high level of interest among users when Geller reposted a controversial satire of political cartoons that portrayed Muhammad.

This political satire cartoon was originally posted as the Jyllands Posten, which was a very controversial political cartoon story surrounding the defamation of Muhammad. These controversial political satire cartoons went into circulation throughout the news media outlets around late 2005. By 2007, Geller had started her political campaign which stood against and opposed the Arabic language in a public school in Brooklyn New York. This campaign which Geller led played a significant role that resulted in the resignation of Debbie Almontaser, who was the principal of the school.

In a recent article released by the news domain “twitchy”, Geller posted a story that put shame on the media channel Cable News Network, or better known as CNN. Geller had put shame on CNN because she claimed that they used the Southern Poverty Law Center to defame her reputation. The news web site Twitchy reported that federal officers took in a suspect into custody after the assassination of Usaama Rahim in the Boston area.

The Boston Globe, another news outlet, indicated that Rahim along with another suspect, David Wright, had intentions of beheading a police officer. However, despite these allegations, it was made clear that their initial target was actually Pamela Geller, because she is the current President of the American Freedom Defense Initiative. Another reason that Geller may have been an initial target was because of her involvement with the Draw Muhammad Art Exhibitions, which was a cartoon contest that was held in Garland, Texas.

Many other news sources including ABC news posted Twitter updates regarding the allegations of the terrorist wanting to behead Pamela Geller as CNN claimed in their report. Even Pamela Geller herself reposted the Twitter update from CNN so that her followers could be aware of how CNN was trying to defame her image. There were hundreds of comments posted under the story with multiple views on it. Even the Washington Post conducted a story on the same controversial issues surrounding Geller, the political cartoon contest in Garland, Texas, and the allegations of the two terrorists supposed attack on Geller. The Washington Post relayed a video featuring Pamela Geller and her response to the story.

Geller recognized that the terrorist wanting to target her was the price of freedom of speech. It is because she has a tendency to post political stories that do not concur with what Islamic State believes that they or any other terrorist organization would put a target on her. Geller has been forced to hire an army of personal security to follow her wherever she goes in fear that any terrorist or militant extremist might have intentions of hurting her.

Pamela Geller is such an inspirational and patriotic journalist because she knows what she is doing is right for the American people and her audience. Geller makes it not only a point, but an obligation to get the right information to the general public in the form of news and journalism. Although many organizations and even opposing political parties may disagree with Geller’s stories and points of view, Geller satisfies her audience with the facts and reality of any political situation. It is because she puts so much effort in facts and reality of the information she is presenting that she has such a loyal audience that continues to entrust her with being provided accurate stories that affect the entire country.

Geller knows that not everybody will want the facts of the economy to be exposed, but she still continues to persevere through all of the obstacles in front of her with the mission and obligation to make such relevant information available to her audience as well as the general public. Even though there are terrorist organizations that want to eliminate her from the situation and will go as far as wanting to behead her, Geller fights through such fatal and risky challenges to maintain her loyalty to journalism and getting the story out to the American people.

It is not easy to be a successful journalist because so many people depend on them to continue to get the most accurate story out and this requires a lot of risk taking that can impair one’s reputation, name, and even their life. Geller however, has been consistently taking such risks because she will do anything to get her story out and let her audience know exactly what it is that is going on in the world. These are just some of the many reasons that Geller is considered a true American patriot which are all attributed to her dedication to the media. Geller can easily be regarded as a “white collar patriot”.

It is noted that Pamela Geller has opposing views towards both radical and political Islam. This however, does not necessarily mean that Geller is absolutely against Islam, because Geller once noted in an interview that although she has no opposing problems with Islam itself, she does have oppositions against political Islam.

To be more specific in describing Geller’s opposing views towards what she refers to as political Islam; Geller suggests that Jihadism, which recognizes military Jihad and Islamic fundamentalism, actually poses as an immediate threat to society and to civilization itself. Following Gellers expressions and views towards jihad and Islam, Geller was criticized and referred to as an anti-Muslim racist by Muneer Awad, who represents the Council of American Islamic relations. Geller responded to such allegations claimed by Awad in stating that her views on Islam are not exactly directed towards the Muslim people, but rather to only those specific Muslims who get involved in what Geller considers to constitute as Jihad. Again, this is another example of how the media can twist one person’s perspective and views in an attempt to discredit their reputation and their work in journalism.

Geller is simply putting stories out into the news and media that contain truth and facts, but the simplest thing can lead to others with opposing views growing agitated to the point of trying to defame a good journalist such as Geller’s reputation in the media industry. Despite being accused of racism against the Islamic people, Geller remains modest on the media outlets and simply states that her work in journalism is simply intended to expose the truth which many parties are trying to conceal from the public.

The general public has a right to know the truth about events that are going on in the world, especially those pertaining to Islamic state because those specific issues have such an immediate impact on the American economy due to the ongoing war against terrorism. The war on terrorism has a lot of various parties who play a role in it. Pamela Geller is playing her role in the war with the use of effective journalism. People’s lives are constantly at risk due to the possibility of a terrorist attack, and the information that Geller puts out to the public helps to raise awareness of such important issues. This is another reason why Geller is in fact doing the work of an American patriot and therefore is regarded as such.

The American Freedom Defense Initiative which Pamela Geller founded along with Spencer is what started the Stop Islamization of America campaign. It is based in Houston, Texas and has launched campaigns throughout the entire nation. These campaigns are very exploited in subway stations, particularly in New York City. Unfortunately, the Stop Islamization of America campaign has influenced critics to label the American Freedom Defense Initiative as a hate group. However, Geller has already made clear that it is not a hate group and that she has no racist opposing views against Muslims.

Geller recently posted a story on the Atlas Shrugs regarding Muslim activity and the right to freedom of speech. This story was conducted by Fox News and can be found on the Atlas Shrugs web page. On the news interview which took place on the Sean Hannity show on Fox News, Geller was shown in a debate with London Imam Anjem Choudary of Islam.

Choudary suggested in the debate that Pamela Geller deserved capital punishment by the Jihad law for her involvement in the political cartoon contest that took place in Texas. Choudary’s claims were based on his prophet or God in Muslim religion and that anybody who insulted the prophet in anyway, must be sentenced to death by being beheaded.

Geller counter argued that she should not be sentenced to death because she lives in the United States of America where everybody has a right to practice any religion of their choice and also have the right to practice free speech without any form of penalty.  Choudary of course did not agree at all with Geller’s views on civil liberties and the freedom of speech in America. Choudary suggested that anybody who does not follow his specific religion should be sentenced to death for their disobedience to the prophet. Choudary goes on to try to justify the idea that there was an attempted terrorist attack on Geller for her actions in the political cartoon contest and that she deserved to die.

Choudary, like anybody else who follows the US American Constitutional system of rights, has his freedom of speech and freedom to practice his own religion. However, Choudary, nor any other Muslim, does not have any right to sentence anybody to death based on their religion. This is against federal law in the US and goes against all constitutional rights.

Unfortunately, the attempted terrorist attack on Pamela Geller did not result in any federal or official protection. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has yet to respond to the attempted terrorist attack and has failed to provide protection for Geller. The same is true for homeland security as they have failed to provide Geller with the necessary protection as well. This may be due to the idea that Geller abused her freedom of speech by intentionally provoking the Muslims. This idea was suggested by Juan Williams on Fox News under the same story.

Williams claimed that Geller was intentional provocative and that she was wrong for running the political cartoon contest that defamed the Muslim God. Williams went on to suggest that although he believes in the American freedom of speech, Geller should not have provoked the Muslim people. At this point in the story, Hannity stepped in by suggesting that Williams was a liberal and labelled him as one of the “I believe in free speech but” types of people.

This suggests that although Williams may very well believe in the freedom of speech, he does not believe it should be used in such a provocative way that goes against his own personal beliefs and opinions. Geller argued that she exercised her freedom of speech through the full extent of the law, and that she should not be criticized when it was the Muslim terrorist that tried to assassinate her over a cartoon. Hannity agreed with Geller in stating that everybody has a right to the freedom of speech and should not live in fear of any consequences or penalties for practicing civil rights which all people in America are legally entitled to.

Unfortunately, this is not true in other parts of the world, especially in Islamic State where women and children have limited rights, if any, and the Muslim religion must be strictly followed in order to avoid being beheaded.

Geller really displayed her patriotism in this story because she knew full well that there were risks involved when involving the Muslim religion in her political cartoon contest. Geller was showing an example of how the Muslims react to what appears in America to be just an ordinary thing. She wanted to show that Americans should be ready for an Islamic attack at any time because if they are willing to kill people over something as simple as a political cartoon, then their patience is in fact very low.

Once again, Geller took a serious risk all for her dedication to the craft of journalism and getting her message out to the American people. Not many people would be willing to take such a drastic risk and speak up on such a controversial issue that has an effect on every American in the country.

Because Geller is able to practice journalism with such bravery and maintain her involvement in the media, she represents what it truly means to be an American patriot. From getting the message out to the general public, to researching and obtaining the necessary information to construct that message, and to taking the risks of actually putting the message out in media and news circulation, Pamela Geller has proven to be one of the most successful and ambitious patriots of our time. Without patriots such as Pamela Geller in the current American society, the general population of America would not be as aware of the events such as the ones relating to Islamic state as they are. Pamela Geller has shown time and time again what it means to be a patriot, and she continues to conduct her work in journalism for that very purpose.