I was watching the interview with Robert Fisk on Canada AM here. He mentioned that our media has performed poorly by using divisive language in reporting the alleged terrorist plot. He employig two examples - the Globe and Mail describing the alleged criminals as "brown-skinned" and he has seen reporters using the term Canadian born as opposed to Canadian citizens - as though Canadian born makes them somehow less.
Here is the deal as I see it. He has it exactly backwards. The term "brown skinned" is used intead of Muslim in an attempt to be non-divisive. Also, this term Canadian born is meant not as people who are less than Canadian citizens since Canadian born makes you automatically a citizen. It is used to potray people who who born and raised in Canada, knowing all the benefits of living in Canada.
I guess this why the term "fisking" was developed in the first place.
Comments (11)
For goodness sakes. They are radical muslims. If they were radical christians, noone would be belly-aching about saying so.
Posted by Dr. Strangelove | June 7, 2006 11:50 AM
Posted on June 7, 2006 11:50
I find it kind of shocking that the Globe would use the words ‘brown-skinned’ as thought that were relevant to anything — Muslim is relevant, skin colour isn’t. As for ‘Canadian born’, you’ve got it exactly right. You can become a Canadian citizen as a senior so it wouldn’t give the precise meaning the reporters would want.
Posted by canadianna | June 7, 2006 11:54 AM
Posted on June 7, 2006 11:54
How strange. I often use the term ‘Canadian-born-Canadian’ to distinguish same from people like, well, me. We’re just as Canadian as you are, of course, but we weren’t born here, and so we might not intuitively know every last detail about, say, the education system or the formative role the Canadian Film Board shorts may have played in some C-B-Cs’ childhoods.
I certainly don’t mean it as a slur, for cripes’ sake. It’s more that the term ‘native Canadian’ was already taken.
Posted by Idealistic Pragmatist | June 7, 2006 11:57 AM
Posted on June 7, 2006 11:57
This Fisk is portrayed by CTV as some kind of expert. The guy is a left wing radical, virulently anti-American and blatantly sympathetic to radical Islam. Makes me sick the way the interviewer kisses his ass.
Posted by strongconservative | June 7, 2006 12:53 PM
Posted on June 7, 2006 12:53
I was surprised when Fisk cited Canada’s role in Afghanistan as a reason for Muslim alienation in Canada. The conspiracy is reported to have been under investigation for more than two years which means it started when we had only token troops in Kabul. Fisk doesn’t know what he is talking about.
Posted by Jim | June 7, 2006 1:07 PM
Posted on June 7, 2006 13:07
Jim, Fisk cited Canada’s role in Afghanistan as a reason, not the current mission. And you’re naive if you don’t think Afghanistan, Iraq, the Israel/Palestine conflict and a host of other reasons helped to radicalize these guys.
Posted by Robert McClelland | June 7, 2006 1:38 PM
Posted on June 7, 2006 13:38
The term “brown skinned” is used intead of Muslim in an attempt to be non-divisive.
The term brown skinned is ugly language for the media to use. Would you feel the same way if the media started referring to Jews as big nosed?
Posted by Robert McClelland | June 7, 2006 1:40 PM
Posted on June 7, 2006 13:40
Could you point to the Globe’s use of “brown skinned”. The only place I saw it referenced was in Walkom’s Star article today, and in context, it is not offensive at all.
Posted by cb | June 7, 2006 2:08 PM
Posted on June 7, 2006 14:08
Fisk is an idiot. Canadian Citizen and Canadian born are not the same animal.
You can be a Canadian Citizen without being Canadian born. You can’t be Canadian born and not be a Canadian Citizen (unless you pull a Conrad and repudiate it for a knighthood…)
Fisk has been on the retarded end of every conversation he’s ever been in. I’d say it’s not just pissed off Iraqis who want to beat him for being stupid…
Posted by Warwick | June 7, 2006 3:20 PM
Posted on June 7, 2006 15:20
i know this is incredibly selfish as i’m brown-skinned but that term is offensive to brown-skinned people who are not muslim. Among the ignorant, brown-skinned could refer to any hindu, sikh or relapsed muslim, not to mention the millions of “brown-skinned” christians.
i know i’m violating that law whose name i now forget, but imagine if the Nazi’s crazy idea of Aryan supremacy was merely labelled as the product of “white-skinned” people.
Posted by grey wall | June 8, 2006 9:53 AM
Posted on June 8, 2006 09:53
Leave it to Robert to dredge out the favoured political footballs of al Qaeda, something to kick around to justify their pursuit to kill four million Americans and any number of Canadians for supporting them. It’s a tired and false cliche.
Posted by RGM | June 10, 2006 8:25 AM
Posted on June 10, 2006 08:25