Sky News journalist calls Palestinian mourners savages

DadaKopf

Emma Hurd on Sky News tonight described Palestinians' expressions of mourning over Arafat's death as having a "savage intensity".

Just another example of prejudicial journalism casting Palestinians as irrational animals.

Every day we're bombarded by images of the 'Arab street', and the analogy is that this is somehow a reflection of the 'Arab mind' - an angry, crazy mess of violent fanaticism borne out of (self imposed?) desparation.

In fact, the Arab street is a complex and progressive forum for the expression of Arab public opinion. Journalists just project their prejudices onto people they don't understand nor want to understand. It's much easier to pedal racism.

I think it's offensive that journalists can get away this level of abuse.

ferdi

sky is junk, but then again every piece of media/journalism has a person behind it....people have agendas, angles, biases....no journalism can ever be objective so it just fuels intolerance and prejudice, thats why i didnt go for a media/journalism course when choosing what to do in college...everyone has their axe to grind.

Astro1996

Maybe its just taken out of context, as in having a fierce or passionate intensity rather than actually portraying them as actual savages?

the_syco

DadaKopf wrote:

Emma Hurd on Sky News tonight described Palestinians' expressions of mourning over Arafat's death as having a "savage intensity".

Just another example of prejudicial journalism casting Palestinians as irrational animals.

Every day we're bombarded by images of the 'Arab street', and the analogy is that this is somehow a reflection of the 'Arab mind' - an angry, crazy mess of violent fanaticism borne out of (self imposed?) desparation.

In fact, the Arab street is a complex and progressive forum for the expression of Arab public opinion. Journalists just project their prejudices onto people they don't understand nor want to understand. It's much easier to pedal racism.

I think it's offensive that journalists can get away this level of abuse.

Or it may have something to do with the fact that the police had to fire their guns in the air, to get the people to move, and that there was so many people, that there the coffin couldn't be rested for a bit, but had to go straight to the grave.
Savage, no. "savage intensity", yes. Think about it; the dude who everyone in the country worships, dies. "savage intensity" is one way to describe it, Me, I'd call it mental. The dude was a good leader, brought the sides together, nearly got peace, so its no wonder everyone wants to touch his coffin, thus the mental mass of people.

magick

Emma Hurd on Sky News tonight described Palestinians' expressions of mourning over Arafat's death as having a "savage intensity".

Its a little different from your title of the post kinda like a "fox news alet" .
"savage intensity" could very well mean that intence atmosphere at the time when Arafat was laid to rest.

[PHP]Maybe its just taken out of context, as in having a fierce or passionate intensity rather than actually portraying them as actual savages?[/PHP]

Yup agree, taken out of context ,though i fear how the US media covers it/slants it , it was more passionate intensity as you describe.

However you would think they would organise it better than the chaos that happened near Arafats Compund today.

sceptre

Mountains and molehills I reckon, though perhaps not the best word to use lest there be misunderstandings.

Just as well they didn't say "extreme intensity" then.

sovtek

sceptre wrote:

Mountains and molehills I reckon, though perhaps not the best word to use lest there be misunderstandings.

Just as well they didn't say "extreme intensity" then.

Or extremely intensely.

Meh

DadaKopf wrote:

Emma Hurd on Sky News tonight described Palestinians' expressions of mourning over Arafat's death as having a "savage intensity".

So where did she say "Palestinians are savages"? Or are you guilty of the very thing you're accusing Sky News of i.e. distorting the facts to push your own agenda?

mike65

Dadakopf is having a rant....she also noted the burial reflected Arafats life - She was'nt wrong.

Mike.

DadaKopf

I'm aware how Hurd may have meant it, but turn the whole thing around for a moment.

Would any Western journalist describe any passionate expression of emotion by European people in the same way?

Well, sometimes. At a funeral, no. But look at how the media describes soccer hooligans. This kind of language is used to divide people into those who are acceptable and those who are degenerate. But acceptable to whom?

You have to ask why she didn't use "passionate" or "extreme" or any array of softer (weasel) words. It's more of this "Me civilised, you savage" mentality. It suits people in the West, and governments of the Middle East, to perpetuate this nonsense because it gives them the moral and political authority to do all kinds of things to people. The moral language is constructed largely by the media, and then the circle repeats itself, unless it's broken. It doesn't matter that the description is simply wrong.

magik wrote:

However you would think they would organise it better than the chaos that happened near Arafats Compund today.

Of course there's the possibility that the "savage intensity" expressed in Egypt and the West Bank could have been carefully stage managed. I found the image of Arafat's coffin floating across a sea of mourners very evocative and direct in a way Western state funerals never are. Maybe it was meant to happen this way. So, again, you have to ask why?

Which means, unfortunately, that Arabs themselves have internalised the West's prejudices, too.

Sand

Dada have you ever considered working for the Sun? They do need help jazzing stories up.

SkepticOne

DadaKopf wrote:

You have to ask why she didn't use "passionate" or "extreme" or any array of softer (weasel) words.

Then we would have "Sky News journalist calls Palestinian mourners extremists" as the title of this thread.

Capt'n Midnight

the_syco wrote:

Or it may have something to do with the fact that the police had to fire their guns in the air, to get the people to move, and that there was so many people, that there the coffin couldn't be rested for a bit, but had to go straight to the grave.
Savage, no. "savage intensity", yes. Think about it; the dude who everyone in the country worships, dies. "savage intensity" is one way to describe it, Me, I'd call it mental. The dude was a good leader, brought the sides together, nearly got peace, so its no wonder everyone wants to touch his coffin, thus the mental mass of people.

Part of it is due to the speed of Muslim burials, IIRC it's a burial by sundown the next day. Unlike here in the west there is no laying in state for a week or so for people to file past, Dodi was well buried before they started getting Di's day organised.

Anyone remember the funeral of Ayatollah Khomeini ?

Meh

DadaKopf wrote:

Would any Western journalist describe any passionate expression of emotion by European people in the same way?

Well, sometimes. At a funeral, no.

I'm pretty sure that the IRA funeral in Belfast in the '90s, where the mob of "mourners" murdered two British soldiers, was widely described as savage and worse.

It doesn't matter that the description is simply wrong.

Let me see...masked gunmen, wild automatic gunfire, police firing shots in the air to control the crowd, dozens of people injured in the crush...

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=savage
Ferocious; fierce
Not civilized; barbaric
Lacking polish or manners; rude.

Sounds like an apt choice of words to me. In any case, it doesn't change the fact that your thread title is simply wrong. It's the expressions of mourning that were described as having a savage (i.e. fierce) intensity, not the Palestinians themselves.

The Corinthian

Meh wrote:

In any case, it doesn't change the fact that your thread title is simply wrong. It's the expressions of mourning that were described as having a savage (i.e. fierce) intensity, not the Palestinians themselves.

You mean the title was misleading for the purposes of political sensationalism?

Seems like the Fox Corporation and DadaKopf have something in common then...

BuffyBot

"savage intensity"

I think you're reading way too much into this..