Unpleasant Spin
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Kate | Saturday, November 13, 2004 |
At the Toronto Star, Rosie Dimanno reveals something we already know.
The latitude routinely extended to columnists – who, let’s face it, deal largely in the realm of opinion – shrinks when the subject is Islam or Palestine. Editors huddle and debate the potential repercussions from all possible angles.
I can think of no other constituency that is more respectfully – or hyper-obsequiously – treated. And it doesn’t matter how carefully I qualify anything I say, or recount the kindnesses extended to me in Muslim countries (especially Afghanistan, my favourite place on earth) or how often I include all the deferential acknowledgments about Islam – a great religion of peace, its tenets hijacked in recent years by some extremists that commit barbarous acts in its name – it’s never enough to satisfy those who accuse others of promoting hatred while never examining the hostile bitterness in their own hearts. In this paper, commentators can bluntly equate President George W. Bush to Osama bin Laden, Israel be endlessly vilified as a terrorist state, the United States broadly demonized and caricaturized as a superpower gone nuts – and nobody bats an eye. That’s all free speech, which I defend without reservation. But the goalposts shift when the subject is Islamist terrorism or the conflict in the Middle East.
hat tip, Kevin Libin at the Shotgun.
About the Author: Kate is a freelance commercial and automotive airbrush artist living in Saskatchewan, Canada. She was one of the original guest bloggers at OTB in November 2004 and soon joined the permanent stable, contributing through January 2007.
Eventually, she turned to writing full time at her own blog, small dead animals, which was voted the Best Canadian Blog in the 2004 Weblog Awards and has been generally considered that country's best blog ever since.
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