"The overwhelming impression you get is fear and hatred for Muslims," said Rabiah Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. She said Thursday she was distressed by this season's premiere. "After watching that show, I was afraid to go to the grocery store because I wasn't sure the person next to me would be able to differentiate between fiction and reality."
In a written statement issued late Wednesday night, the network said it has not singled out any ethnic or religious group for blame in creating its characters.
"24 is a heightened drama about anti-terrorism," the statement read. "After five seasons, the audience clearly understands this, and realizes that any individual, family, or group (ethnic or otherwise) that engages in violence is not meant to be typical.
They go on to list the different ethnic and/or religious groups who have been bad guys on previous seasons of "24." You know I'm not necessarily one to reflexively jump to the defense of the "24" producers, let alone the Fox network, but in this case I think they are correct. They might also have pointed out past storylines that pretty starkly implied the dangers of scapegoating and racial profiling.
Or that the new season already includes at least two positive (...thus far) Middle Eastern and/or Muslim characters. More if we're counting the currently ambiguous Assad, or Ahmed's father who we were told was innocent of his son's bad intentions.
But at the risk of sounding overly self-referential, I think I said my piece on this about as well as I'm going to on my old blog, last time it cropped up. In part:
Well, that kind of "Of course, I'm smart enough to know the difference...it's the rest of you potato eaters..." thing never flies very far with me. I don't buy it when it's about using Spongebob Squarepants to promote gay marriage, and I don't buy it about this.
ETA: CNN is airing as the debut episode of their new series "CNN: SIU" a documentary called "The War Within." Christiane Amanpour investigates Muslims in the U.K., both extremist and moderate.
It's excellent, and there's no stretch of the imagination required to see how it applies to the States. Keeping an eye out for rebroadcasts (there'll be at least one tomorrow, I imagine more) is highly recommended.
3 comments:
CNN's Amanpour has a clear choice when venturing to inform viewers on delicate but important matters.
Is there really a need to give a platform on news and documentary programs to elements driven by either xenophobia or zealotry?
Do certain sections of media purposely seek rant-bites from fringe fanatics to attract viewers' attention?
It is the media that retains the rants on the oxygen mask of publicity when it accords them undeserved and unjustifiable attention on prime time without which the rantagogues are more weak than a fish without water.
If opinions are not solicited by the networks for a few weeks those loudmouths who survive on soundbites with no following will be reduced to their actual size - trivial, insignificant and unworthy.
Hence, there is no wisdom in bringing people on the CNN who are unwilling and unable to offer a way out of dilemmas that we encounter and the consequences that we face?
By giving undue coverage to extremist expression, we will make the real issues hostage to militancy and mulishness.
Dear Purplexed:
But we're supposed to snap our spines to attention when dick cheney says the biggest problem facing us in Iraq is that "the american people might not have the stomach to do what needs to be done to win"?
Just who exactly are you calling a "rantagogue"? Or are you so bathed in the warm glow of Fox Jazzera that you think our administration is ANY different than the "fringe fanatics" you spit about?
You want a "way out" of the dilemmas we face? How about this one- stop being a terrorist nation. Stop meddling in Middle eastern governments. Stop giving lip service to democracy over there, and then get irate when a vote doesn't go your way (lebanon, palestine). Stop arming israel. Stop calling Iraq a "nation of 50 million free" when they can't even write their own constituition.
In short? Stop WILLFULLY lying to yourself and the rest of the world. Hypocrisy stings.
This is spectacular. Based on this and responses to my "$10, 000" post, absolutely *no one* can tell what the fuck purplexed was talking about.
People can't even agree with *themselves* about it.
There is nothing a writer likes more than to be reminded there are some people who simply can't do it.
Post a Comment