I Am Offended

[lcowper]

On CNN.com, you can find some video commentary on Barack Obama's inauguration speech entitled "'Double Message' to Muslims". In it, Wolf Blitzer quotes two sections of Obama's speech:

...and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken;

Comments

[echoweaver]

Well said. Obama is being very careful where he directs his statements. It would be awfully nice if our commentators could exercise half that care.

[lcowper]

I was telling the kids the other night that when I was growing up, most of the terrorists we heard about were (at least nominally) Catholic-- members of the IRA. Oh, I mean, there were nominally Muslim terrorists even then, but most of the horror shows on the nightly news were courtesy of IRA bombings. It never occurred to me to blame Catholics-- after all, I rubbed elbows with Catholics all the time and they were just people. Why, we'd even had one as President! I think for kids who *don't* often rub elbows with Muslims or see them in the public arena, who do see them as the majority population of nations with whom we are at war or at least unfriendly, it's a lot easier to make that kind of connection, especially with idiots like Blitzer blithely conflating the two

[glenbarnett]

Aye

[lcowper]

Aye, indeed. Is this a problem outside the US?

[glenbarnett]

In two senses.

The intended sense is quite direct, in that I watched Obama's speech, and I am both quite familiar with and unimpressed with Blitzer, having watched him many times. Rest assured that what US presidents say and do and how the US media respond are of very direct consequence to the rest of the world. [When Bush was re-elected in 2004, I realized I couldn't afford to half-listen to US politics any longer. My influence on it might be miniscule, but its influence on me and on people I care about is sometimes quite large. So I pay attention.]

But of course, in the wider sense, the ignorance and prejudice in Blitzer's attitude occurs outside the US; it's just about as common amongst our own media, and so among our populace. We might not have a direct local equivalent of the nonsense that goes on over at Fox News (though we do get Fox News itself), but we don't lack for small-minded self-important bloviators like Blitzer at CNN, and examples are present in all of our media.

[the_dark_snack]

Happy Birthday!

[lcowper]

Thanks!