Of Militants and Hindu Terrorists, courtesy NY Times
Courtesy NY Times, I learnt today that a certain “militant group”
..has expanded its operations in Afghanistan, inflicting casualties on Afghans and Indians alike, setting up training camps, and adding new volatility to relations between India and Pakistan
Curious to know who this “militant group” is?
It goes by the name of Lashkar-e-Taiba and inconveniently happens to be a designated foreign terrorist organization by the US State Department.
Of course the State Department cannot control NY Times’ use of words…but I wonder…when we cannot even name the enemy, what hope is there to win the war?
Interestingly, the word “terrorist” does not figure in the report at all…even as you have about half-a-dozen mentions of “militants”.
Even more interestingly, the NYT has no use for such nuances when it comes to mention of “Hindu Terrorists“.
And to think this is the same newspaper that finds the use of the word “tweet” objectionable.
Sigh.
Related Posts: Very very bad militants… and The missing “T-wordâ€
Somewhat Related: Why the “War Against Terror†cannot be won by guns alone
P.S. I am almost tempted to join “Boycott the New York Times“.
Additional Reading: Cookbook on dealing with Orwellian Media Tactics
“Are Hindus Violent?†– Excerpts and Of Students and Sadhvis…
Why bother with NYT? NYT is the reflection of a middle-class, educated, intelligent section of the society whose members compete with each other to establish themselves as “politically-correct-than-thou”. Thus any news about Hindus is the reflection of their mindset about the Hindus (which is slightly better than their mindset about Baboon and Gorilla), but secularism must be adhered to when talking about Muslims. I know democrats who would consider any bearded man in the airport a Jehadi, but, in any social gathering, would go all the way in defending “real” Islam even if they do not know how to spell Qur’an in English.
I have not been able to decide where the media is worse: US or India. Anytime, I look at something and think this is the new low, I get surprised a few days later. In both the countries. After checking Dawn for last couple of days, I finally realized that media in the failed state is way better and non-partisan than those in “free”, “open” and “democratic” countries.
Shouldn’t we Hindus stand up and email / Call NYT.com and atleast express their anger regarding their double standards?.
I just emailed the editor expressing my displeasure on NYT.com double standards.
digitalsvp@nytimes.com or visit – http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/infoservdirectory.html
@ Sid: I liked this: “I have not been able to decide where the media is worse: US or India“!
@ Milind: I am drafting an email too and will be sending it out later today/early tomorrow…will post contents here. Thanks
I really do not believe email would help when there is no change in basic attitude. Our e-mails would be interpreted as response from reactionary Hindu bigots while NYT or Huffington post would sing a brotherly song for children of Ishmael. That is what entrenched band of western Indologist do every time their trashy theories are contested with new evidence. The problem as I see, is that mutual respect, by it’s very nature, are shared among the equals. We are not equals or even if we are, west see no obligation to consider so. We must be capable enough to make them consider so and only then this would stop.
This is the copy of the email I sent:
***
Dear Sir/ Madam,
Can you please help me understand your editorial policy with regards the use of the word “terrorist” and “militant”.
Please refer to these two articles as examples:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/world/asia/16lashkar.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/world/asia/12india.html?_r=1
Sincerely,
B Shantanu
***
Email sent to executive-editor@nytimes.com; managing-editor@nytimes.com; public@nytimes.com
Fingers crossed.
http://boycottnyt.com/
the first time i heard of such an intiative against a ‘mainstream rather ‘globally mainstream’ newspaper..
they must have been biased many many times for that..