Amid the press coverage and consternation about the murder of veteran abortionist George Tiller in Kansas, the media and President Obama seemingly missed another news item. Or at least they didn’t emphasize it much: The man suspected of murdering one military recruiter and wounding another in Little Rock, Ark., was an Islamic jihadist.

The two cases are interesting for what they reveal not only about the media and its hero in the White House but also about their unspoken ideological goals.

Consider the two events. When anti-Christian fanatic Scott Roeder murdered Tiller, as police allege, the president issued a statement about the crime and mobilized U.S. marshals to protect abortion clinics everywhere.

Then, Tiller’s allies in the blogosphere and media sprung into action. They blamed Fox News loudmouth Bill O’Reilly for Tiller’s death. Preposterous, yes, but remember what Joseph Goebbels said about the big lie.

Nothing similar happened when Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, as police allege, cut down Pvt. William Long, 23, and Pvt. Quinton I. Ezeagwula, 18. Long was killed, Ezeagwula, wounded. Even when he appointed his new Army Secretary, a perfect opportunity to mention the killing, as Michelle Malkin observed, Mr. Obama stayed silent. He waited days to say something.

The media did not offer the same storm of coverage as they did with Tiller. Indeed, one network peddled the lie that Muhammad was merely “upset with the military” and didn’t mention his religion. The double standard is so blatant, columnist Malkin notes, that even a writer at The Atlantic, hardly a nest of conservatives, took National Public Radio to task for hiding Muhammad’s religion.

Nor did anyone on the right leap to another conclusion: that anti-Bush, anti-military rhetoric from the blogosphere, and leftist luminaries such as MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann, inspired Muhammad’s mayhem.

The difference between the two cases? Roeder is white and claims to be some sort of Christian (he isn’t). Muhammad is a black convert to Islam who hates the United States.

The disparity of treatment and concomitant message, that Christianity is evil and Islam is good, is no accident. President Obama and the media subtly demonize opponents of their leftist ideology by associating them with fanatics such as Roeder. Meanwhile, they protect Islam by disguising it when men such as Muhammad kill. This helps the left achieve its goal of undermining American culture and society by turning the truth about Christianity and Islam on its head.

Consider the president’s recent remarks, just before visiting Saudi Arabia, about the “religion of peace,” four adherents of which were recently collared before they destroyed a synagogue in New York.

Mr. Obama thinks we “have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam,” The New York Times reported, and the United States may well be “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.” As Robert Spencer of JihadWatch.com asks, “what planet is he on?”

Good question. The United States obviously isn’t “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.” And in any event, we hardly need Mr. Obama or his Muslim friends to “educate” us about anything.

Jihadists gave Americans an advanced degree in Islamic studies on Sept. 11, 2001. They continue that educational effort each time one of their suicidal soldiers bombs a school, shoots a military recruiter or plans to destroy a synagogue. Their leaders reinforce the message when they deny the Holocaust and discuss destroying Israel. Of course, we must ignore all this.

In the treatment of these two events this week, Americans witnessed ideological mendacity and the will to power at work.

Remember, again, the big lie.