I was merrily watching the CNN ticker last night when a promo for a show came on (Frontline? Newsline? some kind of line) dicussing the contents of the forthcoming show: Canadian PM Jean Chretien’s Aide Calls Bush A Moron.
Along with appropriate pictures, some graphics came on the screen with one with 3D words like this:
Do our Northern Neighbors deserve the respect of the USA?
What the hell are they trying to do? Imply that because the PM’s aide uses a poor choice of words (tho’ what she meant is debatable:p), the whole country is at fault?
While this may be written off by some Americans, It’s very likely some out there will see this, combine it with their already confused knowledge of Canada, and start another, LESS SERIOUS round of “Blame Canada”. As far as I know, this is one main thing that other nations dislike about the USA: the lumping or even stereotyping of seemingly alike but very different entities.
So, what do you think? Am I out of line for feeling this way, or does CNN need to think twice about what they say (or write) to avoid any possible bullshit uprisings?
I’ve yet to see CNN report on something without putting the strongest possible pro-U.S. spin to it. When it comes to international coverage, the only thing that matters is how it affects us, and why our actions were the only reasonable course of action. Blech.
“As far as I know, this is one main thing that other nations dislike about the USA: the lumping or even stereotyping of seemingly alike but very different entities.”
The scent of irony? (sniff). Yep, it’s around here somewhere…
Please explain your stance, Jackmannii, if you don’t mind. Am I being offensive in stating my opinion that CNN wrongfully caters to the usual American stance of thinking Canada is a small village to the abrupt north, or is there a slight discrepancy in my wording? To underline my position, jumping to conclusions in the way CNN does is insulting.
The key word in your Opening Rant is “promo”. As in CNN trying to excite interest in one of their boring talkingheadathons by posing a provocative question.
Of the Americans who heard the story about the aide and the “moron” comment, a goodly percentage would agree, others would snicker, most wouldn’t give a damn, a few would be highly offended and a truly microscopic fraction of a percent would think poorly of Canadians in general as a result.
At least that’s my generalization.
Turning the promo into a rant about how Americans stereotype those of other nationalities seems pretty lame to me.
Re irony: there’s a fair amount of national stereotyping on this board. Quite a bit of it stems from non-American posters who seemingly derive most of their “knowledge” of the U.S. from Hollywood films which evil Yanquis have forced them to attend.
Nah, I don’t think you’re out of line at all. I was pretty shocked by that line myself … well, OK, not shocked, not even surprised really, but definitely saddened. No question that they’re pandering to the most ignorant and jingoistic elements in their audience. Unfortunately, that seems to be what sells these days
Does this justify what they say, as long as it’s a promo (a word I used rather carelessly, I admit, I would have done better with “advertisment”)? I would think that caution should be used even if such a phrase were printed on a paper bag, if such media were to be distributed publicly.
In reference to the recent memorial defacing on Rememberance Day, it seemed to only take a few misguided persons armed with spray paint to provide a “counterpoint”. This fraction of people, as you wrote, would have watched the broadcast all the same. If these people were to be as militant as the Rememberance day vandals, perhaps it wouldn’t factor into the big picture, but it could quite possibly influence more monumentous things. I cite the resignation of the Canadian PM’s aide from all of this uproar about her slipped tongue.
Yes.
I didn’t quite do that, see. I merely said that they were feeding off of this phenomenon, which is firmly in place enough to cause a problem. This is not a direct quote, and if I didn’t say it so clearly then, that is my mistake, and I’m saying it now. And I don’t think it’s so lame to rant about it anyway. It’s a problem that should be adressed, perhaps in another thread. And if this doesn’t sit well enough with you, I’d say it equals many other rants in here, with all due respect to those rants and their authors. However, I find this topic decently rantworthy.
The people at CNN are assholes. In today’s story on the hotel bombing in Kenya and the supposed missile attack on an Israeli plane, they write something about how al-Qaeda has been blamed for the 9/11 attacks. Um, no, fuckwits, they admitted it. Douchebags.
