Man, this winter is long, isn't it? We've had so many storms, and it has been so cold, that everyone seems to have a bit of cabin fever. That includes me, during the storm that hit the other day.
The weather in Sochi, everyone is shocked to hear, is not only milder, but far milder, than what we hear in the northeast have been experiencing. But is that really surprising? I know that, personally, I was not aware that Sochi was a "semi-tropical" region, and even has palm trees, evidently. It is certainly not the image that most people have of Russian winters, but hey, is it really that surprising? I mean, Russia is the biggest country in the world, by far. If memory serves correctly, it spans eleven different time zones, from the eastern tip, which is very close to Alaska, to the very western end, which borders the Baltic and other eastern European nations. Wouldn't it stand to reason that it might have a warm area somewhere, within such an enormous expanse? The wonder is that the warm region is not larger.
In any case, I was mentioning not long ago how unfairly it seems the western, and particularly the American, mainstream media portrays Sochi, as well as other, non-western nations, whenever they host major sporting events like this.
Well, I found this article that was very interesting, and which delves a bit further into how and why the media coverage has been almost exclusively bad, when it comes to Russia and Sochi hosting these winter Olympic games.
Here is the link:
"Distorting Russia: How the American media misrepresent Putin, Sochi and Ukraine" by Stephen F. Cohen:
http://www.thenation.com/article/178344/distorting-Russia#
So, the other day, I was stuck watching television during the big snowstorm, and only had two stations coming in (I wasn't at home, just in case you were wondering). One was a music station, and the movie Highlander came on. It was a pleasure to watch that after so many years.
CNN was the other channel, and I watched that after a program that I care nothing for came on the music station - that being the Gene Simmons show. Really don't need to hear about him any more than absolutely necessary, so I turned on CNN instead.
A show came on that I had never heard of before. The Erin Burnett Show. And she got to talking about a number of things, a range of topics. Some issues, she seemed to be thinking seriously, and had some apparent insights. Others, well, seemed like sensationalism to me. Still, there were enough issues to keep me tuned in, until one particular story came on. It was about New Zealand. She opened up this part of the show by explaining that New Zealand has a reputation for being very laid back, and she said that, unfortunately, that did not appear to be true.
As proof, she offered two items. The first was that a controversial rap band, Odd Future, had been refused entry into New Zealand, based on allegations (which the band was never convicted of) for inciting fans in Boston to attack police officers. She pointed out that no charges were ever brought against them, but, she explained, "it seemed rumors were enough for New Zealand".
This was the first issue that she took exception to in regard to New Zealand. But she saved most of her outrage for another issue, transitioning from the government's stance on Odd Future, to a domestic policy.
"And it's not just foreigners that the government is trying to control," she said, "They're also telling their own people what to do."
She explain how the government of New Zealand had decided that parents could not give their children certain names.
"Compare that to here in the United States where a Tennessee judge who ordered a couple to change their son's name from Messiah and was fired, and the decision was reversed."
Burnett went on:
"We talk a lot about banana states on this show. But it appears, based on this evidence at least, we might have forgotten a very important one - New Zealand."
Seriously?
Give me a break.
This is the kind of hypocrisy in the American press (again, both left-leaning and right-leaning "news" tend to be guilty of this) that drives me nuts, and which I think helps give Americans a bad name.
This American woman, who has her own show on no less of a known, and supposedly respected, news channel as CNN is strongly suggesting that New Zealand is a banana republic, and in the process, she outright uses the United States as the better example of how a country should handle a situation like this. And maybe parents in the US can name their children whatever they want to, but there is surveillance and government spying on it's own citizens like never before. Since 9/11, we have seen the PATRIOT Act become law, and then remain relevant after several votes. We have had a President who questioned whether Americans had too many rights, and suggested that a dictatorship would be easier, so long as he was dictator. That same President wanted to pass an amendment to the constitution, restricting rights, rather than expanding them for his own citizens - the first President in many decades to attempt that. Plus, he pressed hard for a war under false pretenses, and not surprisingly, corporate scandals that revealed embarrassingly obvious conflicts of interest followed. That same President, who relied on secrecy on a level never before seen in the United States, opened up concentration camps, and even tried to redefine torture. Now, we have a President who failed to close the most famous of those concentration camps, and who has been embroiled in controversy, both here and abroad, over revelations of an incredibly elaborate spying network. He also passed the Monsanto Protection Act, so that American consumers do not have the right to know what ingredients their food is made out of.
Maybe New Zealand can take lessons from the United States in regards to being a banana republic, because America seems a lot closer to achieving it than New Zealand. And this is the blatant hypocrisy and Americentrism within the American media that offends many around the world.
But, in fairness, she did specify that she was referring specifically to these two particular issues: the rap group not being allowed into New Zealand, and the government not allowing certain baby names.
Now, I will not condone New Zealand's doing those things, but these are not issues of such importance as the ones that I mentioned in the last paragraph. The scale of comparison just does not exist. And besides, those things are not exactly unheard of here in the United States. How about the musicians who are banned from performing in cities and states here in the US? Why does she not mention that?
Also, she mentions how New Zealand was seen as the most laid back country in the world. What she mentioned really has nothing to do with that at all. These are very specific issues that are not, in fact, indicative of how laid back New Zealanders are, or are not.
What this "report" does show is a hypocrisy of the most flagrant variety.
Again, change begins at home. And until Americans, and that includes major American media outlets, take more objective approaches that do not blatantly reflect their own sense of superiority, they will simply continue to discredit American journalistic integrity and, on a larger level, Americans themselves.
If she is so worried about a democratic nation turning into some kind of a dictatorship, how about she cover the much more relevant stories that are suggestive of exactly that, and much closer to home to boot. I am not condoning New Zealand's banning of a foreign band from performing within their borders, nor am I going to say that it is necessarily the government's business to prohibit certain names for children. But those are relatively minor issues, and in a far away land, and it disappointed me that some woman with her own show on CNN would use that story to suggest an unfortunate trend towards a banana republic for New Zealand. The United States has had far more serious challenges to the survival of democracy within it's own borders that the media can focus on. When someone like Erin Burnett takes a blind eye towards those myriad issues, and chastises New Zealand for very specific policies that really have no basis in comparison to the murderous mindset and actions of a real banana republic, it seems to me just to reinforce the already out of control Americentrism and widespread sense of superiority and righteousness. That, to me, is the height of hypocrisy, and the major failure of not just Erin Burnett, but of a huge portion of the American mainstream media. That is precisely why America's democratic institutions have been constantly under attack, and are threatened regularly these days.
I was very disappointed with her show. it seemed full of fluff and lacking in substance, generally speaking, and I doubt that my television will be tuned into her program again.
Here is the link to the Erin Burnett piece on New Zealand, so you can judge for yourself:
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2014/02/13/exp-erin-outtake-american-rappers-barred-from-new-zealand.cnn.html
No comments:
Post a Comment