When news first broke of an explosion at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, CBS News dispatched its terrorism expert, Steven Emerson, to the site to offer his analysis for viewers. Emerson reported: “This was done with the attempt to inflict as many casualties as possible. That is a Middle Eastern trait. Oklahoma City, I can tell you, is probably considered one of the largest centers of Islamic radical activity outside the Middle East.” Other television news networks and newspapers, including ABC News, the Chicago Tribune, and Newsday, echoed Emerson's analysis and insisted that the bombing bore the marks of Middle Eastern terrorism. Although the mainstream media assumed that it was only a matter of time before investigators confirmed the identities of the Muslim culprits, as it turned out, the perpetrator was Timothy McVeigh, a white, Christian American and Gulf War veteran with strong antigovernment convictions.

XREF: Connects to broader literature on media bias and the rush to attribute attacks to Muslim actors, anticipating post-9/11 coverage patterns.

Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Intro…, loc. 504