can we just ignore it?

Written By: - Date published: 1:11 pm, January 27th, 2015 - 11 comments
Categories: Media, religion - Tags:

well, happy new year everyone.  i’ve been absent from posting over the summer because i decided i just needed a break from the negativity that has been pouring out from many directions, targeting muslims or islam.  so i decided to just enjoy the break with my family and stay away, as much as i could from blogs, social media & even email.  but i guess it’s time to start getting back into things again.

so apparently there’s some statement out about banning burqas today.  whoop-de-doo.  my response is pretty much the response i had to a certain mr prosser’s comments a couple of years back, which i wrote about here:

somebody says something stupid about muslims.  then it has to be picked up by every media organisation who rush around for comments.  of course they’ll find some muslims who will be angry and upset, given the serious stupidity of the comments.  then the media report how OUTRAGED those muslims are, as well as interviewing the original culprit to give more air to his views.

today they couldn’t get the original culprit so they went for people with similar views, who then get a chance to put out more stupidity, while the interviewers put on the appropriate expression of incredulity at such ridiculouness, and continue to ask more questions designed to increase the level of such.

then you have the flow-on effect – talk-back, twitter, facebook.  and that’s where the damage gets really done, and we go to have another go of the merry-go-round. freedom of speech.  but what he’s saying is true.  look at all these awful things muslims have done.

we go through this once every 6 months or so.  if it’s not women wearing burqa’s banned from buses, it’s cartoons, it’s various politicians or authors.  some little spark and “we” get to have “the debate” all over again as to whether muslims are good or bad, happy or sad.  leaders of political parties get to have their faces in the news and posture about inclusiveness and to express OUTRAGE at such terrible remarks.  let’s see how many political points we can score on the back of this current incident.

frankly, i’m sick of these conversations and i’m sick being used as a political tool.

[…]

but this strategy only works when the media decide that it’s a story.  when they choose not to ignore the rantings of an outlier, but instead make a big issue out of it.  and yes, i know the argument about shining a light on this stuff so that it can [be] shown up and countered.  and yes, twitter was pretty good in terms of speaking out against these particular comments.  but on the other hand, the comments on the seven sharp facebook page were not so nice.  and comments in other places, and on talkback?  still pretty awful.  still influencing people – the sort of people who will make decisions about who will get a job or who will get a rental house; people that will be teaching our children or providing us health services.  there isn’t enough light to counter the darkness caused by this stuff.

i’d much rather the media didn’t play along.  but i guess it tends to be a ratings winner, it certainly gets people talking and engaged.

so what’s the answer?  how do we stop political types taking advantage of our community for their own political goals?  well i don’t think there’s a country in the world which has solved that problem.  but at very least, we can be honest about what’s happening here, and call it out for what it is.

feeling the same way again.  i don’t plan to give today’s comments any air by links or names, don’t plan to dignify them with a response.  our community is being used for political gain again, and i’m not playing along.  what would be really, really nice is if this time the media refused to report on the basis that another nobody calling for a burqa ban is just not news.

[image is from here]

11 comments on “can we just ignore it? ”

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  1. The Murphey 1
    27 January 2015 at 1:23 pm

    Q. What are we being distracted from ?

    Regrettably there are swathes who are unable to see through the mirage of what you describe

  2. Tracey 2
    27 January 2015 at 1:53 pm

    Given so much of our “news” comes from the public via cellphone video and pictures, twitter etc, you have to wonder what the actually employed journalists do with their time, and what passes for self respect amongst them. At least once in all our lives we have to stand up and say “enough”. If we don’t we get what we deserve.

    • shorts 2.1
      27 January 2015 at 2:35 pm

      never ceases to amuse me how quick the MSM went from social media is the devil (time waster, will rot ya brain and all those old fogeyisms the media displays so often) to using it to source a huge chunk of their infotainment and news content

      if I didn’t have a job that requires me to stay up with whats happening in the msm media I’d happily switch it off and be happier for it

      • Tracey 2.1.1
        27 January 2015 at 3:59 pm

        I hear you. I know alot of the pressure on journalists in “news rooms” is coming from resourcing shortages and editorial direction from above, bu courage isn’t just running into a burning building to save someone or running to save an injured army buddy, its standing up and say I won’t be prostituted…

        Hosking
        Henry

        Bah!

  3. just saying 3
    27 January 2015 at 3:41 pm

    It must be very hard to stand up to this kind of bullying of you and your community. You are an inspiration to me.

    • stargazer 3.1
      27 January 2015 at 4:02 pm

      aw thanx, really appreciate that. this is why i need to step away from things now and then. especially after the fiasco of the rushed security legislation which took a lot of energy, what with the written & oral submissions & a little bit of media coverage. the political response to our submissions seems to have been an escalation of anti-muslim nastiness from the usual quarters. i guess it helps to pick the situations where it is important to stand up and the ones that should just be ignored. this waitangi thing is so obviously one for the second category!

  4. r0b 4
    27 January 2015 at 3:57 pm

    Hope your time off was restful and refreshing. Welcome back…

  5. adam 5
    27 January 2015 at 6:08 pm

    The terrorist attack in France that took place at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo was not about free speech. It was not about radical Islam. It did not illustrate the fictitious clash of civilizations. It was a harbinger of an emerging dystopia where the wretched of the earth, deprived of resources to survive, devoid of hope, brutally controlled, belittled and mocked by the privileged who live in the splendor and indolence of the industrial West, lash out in nihilistic fury. – Chris Hedges.

    Link to whole thing if anyone missed it.

    http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/a_message_from_the_dispossessed_20150111