It isn't easy being a headline writer. Under deadline pressure, you sum up a complex article in a few words, make it fit perfectly and feel extremely proud of yourself. Then you show up at work the next day and wonder why there are coffee stains on all the monitors in the newsroom.
The Huffington Post has tracked down 16 of the funniest headlines of all time. Here are four of my favorites:
Check out the other headlines at HuffPo.
Freedom of speech. It's not something I take for granted. I grew up in Zambia during an era when you could say anything you wanted about the country's president, as long as you had already started the engine of your getaway plane. That's what I love about countries like America and Canada -- freedom of speech has no bounds, as long as you don't scream "Fire!" in a crowded theater, threaten the president or profess your undying love for Osama bin Laden. Okay, so it does have bounds, but you get the point. I don't remember the last time a journalist or author had to run away from an angry mob. It's just not the way things are done, as I learned several years ago when I tried to assemble a mob to chase Ann Coulter.
India allows a great amount of free speech, compared to many other countries. But just ask fans of Savita Bhabhi how free they are to enjoy her sexcapades. The cartoon seductress has been banned in India, perhaps to the delight of many a wife, who remembers the good old days when her husband got his thrills out of Asterix. As S. Mitra Kalita writes in the WSJ, Savita joins The Da Vinci Code, The Polyester Prince, and Royal Magazine as "examples of India's hindrance of free speech."
You might never have heard of Royal Magazine, but it's an example of the squelching of free speech in India that seems more common—preemptive and driven by fear. Editor in chief Ronak Vyas wrote to me and said, "I have been publishing an online magazine that features nudity and had my share of problems in India. To be honest I feel like you can get away with anything as long as you don't offend a particular person or group on a personal level."
This being India, offending someone is a given. This being India, also the world's largest democracy, the government needs to weigh what's more important and whether it draws the line too soon, too early.
Consider this comment from Gaurav Jain: It's "not about the internet or Savita alone, its (sic) a general lack of freedom in being able to criticise or comment on our holy cows (leaders, gods, other religious figures) … some mob somewhere will have a reason to protest most likely in a violent manner."
Like me, he wonders whether the controversy stems from Savita being an "empowered woman making her own choices, perhaps this is a threat to certain sections of society that prefer to see their wives as creatures who should stay indoors and rear the kids (which is ACTUAL subjugation)." [Wall Street Journal]
Savita was banned because she's an "empowered woman"??? Watch out Indra Nooyi, you could be next.
Fortunately, I've already downloaded hundreds of Indra's pics to my hard drive. Let me know if you want any. And please indicate your preference: business suit or sari.
Every now and then, you come across someone who's really good at what he does at a young age -- and all you can do is shake your head and be depressed. I mean, impressed. Vinayak Gorur of Ahwatukee Foothills, Ariz., is only 21, but already making people shake their heads.
Starting your own catering company, landing a job as a sous-chef at a respected restaurant and winning a prestigious cooking competition are three feats most people might aspire to accomplish over the course of their lifetime, but Vinayak Gorur, an Ahwatukee Foothills resident and Desert Vista graduate, has accomplished all three tasks by the age of 21. ...
In May of last year, Gorur won a scholarship to the Scottsdale Culinary Institute, which led him to pursue a career as a chef. Gorur, who is of Indian descent, acknowledges that this is not a typical career path chosen by Indians.
"Most Indians pursue science, but I love cooking," he said. "I really have a passion for this." [Link]
Gorur is definitely passionate about cooking. Just read the article in the Ahwatukee Foothills News and you may get a clue how good he is at brewing something or spreading it on thick.
Is that couple Indian or Iranian? My vote would be Indian, though they could pass for several other nationalities. But Iranian? I don't think so. A Huffington Post editor apparently didn't see the difference. As Ryan Tate of Gawker notes, the editor used the photo on April 23 to illustrate an article about divorces in India and used it again on June 9 to accompany a Time excerpt about a "marriage crisis" in Iran. On both pages, if you run your cursor over the photo, you will see the tag "India."
Why does this matter? Well, here are a few reasons:
1. People in the media should know better. Otherwise we'll soon be seeing a HuffPo headline that says: "Obama Visits India, Begins Talks With Manmohan Ahmadinejad."
2. The photo has given unnecessary stress to Iran's morality police, who are searching all over the country for the woman who dares to wear jeans and leave her hair uncovered in public.
3. The couple in the photo seem to be having enough problems, without HuffPo giving the woman another reason to yell at the man: "I told you not to let that guy take our photo. Look what they're @#$%& doing with it! First an article about divorce, then an article about a marriage crisis. What's coming next -- an article about nymphomaniacs?"
Newsflash: Gay couples are getting married! And some of them, believe it or not, are Indians!
Yes, it's true! Mansi Choksi of The Times of India has done some investigative work and uncovered same-sex marriage ceremonies in Durban, Seattle and Toronto involving Indians. "These warm, happy stories may sound unbelievable given the stream of stories of social hostility against gay people," Choksi writes, "but the fact is that same-sex marriage ceremonies have been performed in Indian households, rich and poor, and in cities and small towns alike."
Choksi has even found evidence of same-sex marriages in India, where homosexuality is still considered a criminal act.
A Mumbai activist from Gay Bombay confirms that there are reports of marriages every week, whether it is a lesbian couple in Punjab or Kerala or gay men in Gujarat or Delhi. [Link]
Police Inspector: "Sir, I've heard reports that the lesbian couple got married."
Police Superintendent: "Which lesbian couple, the one in Punjab or Kerala?"
Inspector: "I'm not sure, sir. I will check with the gay men in Gujarat and Delhi."
Superintendent: "Also check with that activist from Gay Bombay and that other activist from Straight Bombay."
Ashok Row Kavi, who pioneered the opening of the closet in India, says he knows several couples who have tied the knot. "There's one big plus-point about Hindu priests," says Kavi with a straight face. "They'll forget about everything if you show them a few bucks." [Link]
Now that's really offensive. Hindu priests are just like priests in other religions -- you have to show them a lot of bucks.
Choksi offers a few real examples of gay Indians who got married, though none who currently live in India.
For San Jose residents Arvind Kumar and Ashok Jethanandani too, exchanging vows in Arvind's brother house in Toronto was the most memorable day of their lives. Arvind, a board member of the California Native Plant Society and Ashok, editor of India Currents magazine, met when they were in their early 30s. "We became roommates and then lovers," says Arvind.
Arvind and Ashok were married in a traditional Indian ceremony complete with dhotis and agni. "Ashok and I are very sentimental people, we thought it was a great idea," he says. It was Arvind's mother, who had once adamantly rejected his sexuality, who came up with the idea. "When my family realised that what I had with Ashok was not 'timepass', they accepted us in their own way. He is very special to my family."
Timepass? That reminds me of the time I was 12 and my mother found me in the bedroom with another boy.
Mother: "Hey, what is going on? What are you two doing?"
Me: "It's just timepass, Mom."
Mother: "What kind of timepass is this?"
Me: "We're just having a little fun."
Mother: "Fun? Can't you have fun without hugging each other like that?"
Me: "We're not hugging each other, Mom. It's called wrestling. Haven't you seen it on TV?"
It's been a tough year for the newspaper industry in America. So tough that one major newspaper has printed its own obituary (rest in peace, Rocky Mountain News),
another has ended its print edition (see you online, Seattle Post-Intelligencer) and a third is writing its last will and testament (you’re like family to me, San Francisco Chronicle).
Many other newspapers are taking drastic steps to prevent their demise, such as cutting their staff, publishing fewer times per week, and combining the "Sports" and "News" sections into a single section called "Spews."
Yes, newspapers in America are in deep trouble. They’ve given President Obama so much love, but what does he do? He kisses the auto industry’s rear bumper.
I don't know about you, but I really hope my local newspaper keeps arriving at my doorstep. My wife doesn't like it when I take the computer into the bathroom. I don’t know why I bothered getting a computer desk with wheels.
Actually, I usually use a laptop, which is small and light, but still not bathroom-approved. Even if I used a Blackberry, it probably wouldn’t give me the same satisfaction as turning actual pages –- or sticking an editorial onto the toilet roll.
There’s something special about a newspaper that laptops or Blackberries or iPhones will never replace. When Obama won the presidency, millions of Americans saved the next day’s newspaper, realizing that it was a copy of history that their grandchildren or great-grandchildren would one day be able to auction off.
Sometimes you have to leave the comedy to the professional comedians. Or at least save it for your
friends at the bar. Hopefully that's the lesson that Dallas Observer writer Jesse Hughey has learned. Hughey triggered a torrent of "I'm so offended" comments when he previewed a New Year's Eve comedy show featuring Indian-Americans Raj Sharma and Paul Varghese:
UTD, by the way, stands for University of Texas at Dallas, not urinary tract disease.
It's obvious from the context that Hughey wasn't trying to be malicious; he was just trying to be funny. Unfortunately he failed. Miserably. So miserably that everyone in the audience heckled him. They shouted, "Hey Hughey, get off the stage! We're here for the Sharma-Varghese Show, not the Shameful Varmint Show."
Still glowing from Abhinav Bindra's gold medal in shooting, Indian sports fans were stunned to hear
that Akhil Kumar had "crashed out" of the Olympics. Journalism student V. Balakrishnan was particularly sullen as he ate lunch with his best friend Bobby Johnson at Columbia University in New York.
Bobby: "Bala, why aren't you smiling anymore? Did you just fill up your car again?"
Balakrishnan: "No, Bob, I just read that Akhil Kumar crashed out of the Olympics."
Bobby: "Crashed out? I didn't know they had auto racing at the Olympics."
Balakrishnan: "He's not an auto racer, Bob. He's a boxer."
Bobby: "Then how did he crash out, Bala? Did someone knock him out of the ring?"
Balakrishnan: "That's Indian journalese, Bob. Our athletes don't merely lose. They crash out. Saina Nehwal crashed out in badminton, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi crashed out in tennis, and Neha Aggarwal crashed out in table tennis."
Bobby: "Wow, I didn't realize there had been so much 'crashing out' going on? Has anyone been injured? Do they protect themselves with helmets?"
Balakrishnan: "No, they don't need helmets. They're got plenty of experience in crashing out. They're ace crash-outers. It's too bad 'crashing out' isn't a sport of its own. We'd be world champions."
Bobby: "But there'd be plenty of competition from other countries. Many countries aren't even on the medal table."
Balakrishnan: "That's true. I'd hate to see our athletes crashing out of the crash-out competition."
Bobby: "If you're so used to seeing them crash out, why do you look so sad? Isn't it the same old story?"
Balakrishnan: "Yeah, but Abhinav Bindra got my hopes up. He didn't crash out. He won the gold medal. So I thought Akhil Kumar had a chance of not crashing out too, especially since he had just sent world champion Sergey Vodopyanov crashing out."
Bobby: "Okay, enough of this crashing-out talk. I know what will cheer you. Alpha Delta Pi is throwing a big party tonight. You and I can get drunk and forget all about the Olympics."
Balakrishnan: "Alpha Delta Pi? Do we know someone there?"
Bobby: "Don't worry about that, Bala. We'll just do what we usually do: crash."
Dr. Dipak Desai, a wealthy gastroenterologist in Las Vegas, had his medical license suspended in February
Authorities investigating a cluster of hepatitis C cases had observed clinic nurses reusing syringes in a manner that contaminated vials of medication and, they believe, infected patients. This dangerous practice, according to city investigators, was done at the direction of Desai and other administrators.
Desai's medical license has been suspended as authorities continue to investigate eight hepatitis C cases linked to his Shadow Lane and Burnham Avenue clinics. [Link]
If he's guilty, he deserves to be punished severely. But as unfortunate as Desai's alleged malpractice is, so is the hatchet job done by Paul Harasim of the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Desai's hometown of Ahmedabad, with help from an anonymous Indian businessman who grew up in Africa. "You do have to remember that he
came from a city in India, Ahmedabad, that is hell on earth," recalled
a California real estate investor who said he attended college and
medical school there at the same time as Desai. "Students studied hard
to get the hell out of there so they could leave and make their
fortune." The businessman, an Indian who grew up in Africa, said when he and
Desai attended Gujarat University in the late 1960s and early 1970s,
there was no escaping the unsanitary conditions and corruption. "You squatted over a hole in the ground when you had to go. There
was no tissue so you used a wet hand to clean yourself," he said. "It
was disgusting. In a 115-degree heat, you couldn't get away from the
smell of human waste." Bribery was a way of life. "Just to get on the bus you had to bribe the conductor with extra
rupees," he said. "There were always so many people waiting. It got so
I'd climb in a window in the back to get on. ... You had to pay someone
to get a job." ... Nearly a quarter of the population, according to United Nations
reports, lived in slums so filthy that people washed in streams where
excrement and garbage were visible. There was no air-conditioning.
Meanwhile, heavy industries and thousands of kerosene-fueled rickshaws
belched black smoke into the air, the classmate said. And without an infrastructure in place to deal with heavy rains,
monsoons regularly left water four feet deep in much of the city. "You had to wade through the water to get where you were going," the
former classmate said. "You'd go to school with wet clothes. There
would be snakes all over the place. The frogs would croak so loud you
had a hard time studying." ... Desai was able to live at home
rather than in college dorms, his former classmate said. He stressed
that even if Desai lived in an area where sanitary conditions were the
norm rather than the exception, Desai wouldn't have been able to escape
the primitive side of Ahmedabad. "Bugs literally became part of your meals," he said. "Cockroaches
and flies were baked into your food. There was no way to avoid it. The
government did nothing to kill them." [Link] Oh my goodness ... using a wet hand ... bribing the bus conductor ... snakes all over the place ... cockroaches and flies baked into your food. If you're a doctor who grew up in Ahmedabad, please turn in your medical license immediately. How can you even think of being a good doctor when you used a wet hand?
About a year ago, the website Pasadena Now shocked the American media by hiring two reporters in India to cover
Pasadena, Calif., City Council meetings. Now a more prominent California media outlet, the Orange County Register, is trying to find out whether copy editing can be outsourced to India.
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) -- An Indian company will take over copy editing duties for some stories published in The Orange County Register and will handle page layout for a community newspaper at the company that owns the Pulitzer Prize-winning daily, the newspaper confirmed Tuesday.
Orange County Register Communications Inc. will begin a one-month trial with Mindworks Global Media at the end of June, said John Fabris, a deputy editor at the Register.
Mindworks' Web site says the company is based outside New Delhi and describes its work as providing "high-quality editorial and design services to global media firms ... using top-end journalistic and design talent in India." [Link]
The Register's editors may have been enticed by the words "high-quality" and "top-end," but what really got them drooling were some other words: "low-cost" and "dirt cheap." For what they pay one copy editor in California, they can probably hire three copy editors in India, each of whom can hire three assistant copy editors.
It makes good business sense, right? Well, it depends on whom you ask. The stockholders and highly paid executives of media companies may love the idea, but the hard-working American journalists whose jobs are evaporating may want to book a ticket to India to visit Mindworks Global Media and strangle the "top-end" talent.
Many will of course question whether the Indian copy editors are truly "top-end," whether they can truly do the job as well as their American counterparts.
Applicant: "Is the job still available?"
Recruiter: "Yes, it's still available. Do you have any copy editing experience?"
Applicant: "Well, I have lots of experience in copying. Only a little bit in editing."
Here's what Anne Wayman has to say on the Poynter Institute's website:
I guess I'm not surprised... certainly hope someone tracks the errors that show up and the ultimate failure of this test... sigh [Link]
Dr. Rajiv Medanki, on the other hand, offers a view many Indians probably share:
Why is it that when Americans want to sell without restriction cars, computers and soft drinks to the rest of the world it is called "free trade", but when Indians sell communication skills and software expertise to them it is called "job outsourcing" ?
I think the point about free trade is that people are free to get the best value for the commodity they want to buy or sell. You do the things you are good at, and we will do likewise. We Indians did not complain when Coca Cola put our biggest soft drink manufacturer out of business, so quit whining when our English-speaking graduates compete with your copy editors. [Link]
In other words: Don't complain. Our copy editing skills are at least as "high-quality" as your Coke.
Aspiring reporters are often taught to put lots of description in their articles. "Description can help bring
a subject to life," the journalism professor says. But not all subjects can be brought to life, not even with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
In the case of the Brampton, Ontario, double-homicide today, in which a man allegedly stabbed his wife and a Good Samaritan, the description that a Globe & Mail reporter decided to include served no purpose whatsoever, except perhaps to let everyone know that the reporter was wide awake in journalism class -- and probably sitting in the front row too.
Both the woman and the Good Samaritan died at the plaza, which was quickly flooded with police cruisers and emergency vehicles and cordoned off with yellow tape.
Two hours later, their bodies were still on the ground, covered by a yellow tarpaulin.
No names were immediately released.
Habiba Syed, who works at the nearby Bestway Food Market, witnessed part of yesterday's violence and recounted seeing a man try to stab himself in the neck with a bloody knife before slumping to the ground, shouting, ‘My wife is dead. my wife is dead.'
Pizza maker Amarik Mangar also saw some of the fight and described the slain woman as heavy-set. [Link]
Do we really care whether she was heavy-set, medium-set or light-set? Nope, not unless her weight had something to do with her death:
--- Pizza maker Amarik Mangar described the woman as heavy-set and said her last words were, "I don't care what you say, I'm not going on a diet!'
--- Pizza maker Amarik Mangar described the woman as heavy-set and said she was unable to run away from her husband.
--- Pizza maker Amarik Mangar described the woman as heavy-set and said she had just bought a large pizza at his store and refused to share any of it with her husband.
Perhaps the reporter should have tried to be a little balanced in his description:
--- Pizza maker Amarik Mangar described the woman as heavy-set, her husband as big-bellied, the Good Samaritan as rotund and himself as well-toned.
Or better yet:
--- Pizza maker Amarik Mangar described the woman as heavy-set, her husband as big-bellied, the Good Samaritan as rotund, himself as well-toned, and the Globe & Mail reporter as a horse's behind.
Photo by Peter Rukavina
If she's on the cover of a men's magazine like Esquire and GQ, I can't bring Halle Berry home. Not just Halle
but other female stars such as Jessica Biel, Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston. Esquire publishes some of the best in-depth feature stories in American journalism, but often puts a scantily clad woman on the cover. Back when I was a single guy with no children, I MAY have liked such covers, and by "MAY," I mean "Most Affirmatively Yes." I MAY have subscribed to Esquire, MAY have stuck the Halle Berry cover on my wall and MAY have written a letter to Esquire, complaining that they had made Halle wear too much.
But these days, I have two young daughters and want them to know that they need not dress like that to get attention. I want them to know that they can get on a magazine cover or be successful without using their faces or bodies to sell themselves. I want them to know that they can be like Ellen Degeneres and grace the cover of TV Guide, be like Annie Leibovitz and grace the cover of Newsweek, and be like Ann Coulter and disgrace the cover of Time. Well, maybe Coulter is a bad example, especially since I don't want my girls to stay in the kitchen and Coulter is always trying to "stir up the pot."
I'd like to subscribe to a magazine that puts all sorts of successful women on the cover, not just actresses and singers. And if one of my daughters chooses to be an actress or singer, I'd like her to know that she can act or sing magnificently without showing any skin, that Norah Jones would sound just as melodious in a burka. I'd like her to know that, even wearing a business suit, millions of people MAY still admire her.
When Tom Withers of the Associated Press wrote that basketball star Lebron James was to appear on the
April cover of Vogue magazine, this is how he described it:
Wearing a tank top, shorts and sneakers from his own Nike clothing line, James appears on the cover dribbling a basketball and screaming as if in game mode while throwing one arm around supermodel Gisele Bundchen with Tom Brady nowhere to be found. [Link]
Lebron holding Tom's girlfriend and screaming. Innocent enough, right? Not so fast. The cover, shot by acclaimed photographer Annie Leibovitz, has caused some people to scream foul, saying that the pose reminds them too much of King Kong carrying Fay Wray.
"It conjures up this idea of a dangerous black man," said Tamara Walker, 29, of Philadelphia.
... magazine analyst Samir Husni believes the photo was deliberately provocative, adding that it "screams King Kong." Considering Vogue's influential history, he said, covers are not something that the magazine does in a rush.
"So when you have a cover that reminds people of King Kong and brings those stereotypes to the front, black man wanting white woman, it's not innocent," he said. [Link]
Perhaps I didn't watch enough of King Kong, but the cover doesn't make me think of a giant ape holding a helpless damsel. First of all, Gisele looks hardly helpless. Secondly, Lebron looks like just another basketball player, screaming on the court, probably saying something like: "Look what I've got on my arm, dawg. Yeah, cost me five grand at the tattoo parlor."
I was watching CNN last night and Rick Sanchez (pictured) was interviewing correspondent Michael Ware about the
milestone that had just been reached: 4,000 American soldiers killed in Iraq. Then Sanchez absolutely stunned me. He asked about the Iraqi dead. I fell off the couch.
SANCHEZ: Let me ask you, Michael. Michael, I just want to interrupt you for a moment, because since we're talking of numbers, I want to ask you about something that rarely is talked about on network television in the United States. And that is, the 4,000 Americans is serious enough. But is it your understanding that the number of dead Iraqis would, what, double, triple? Or what would it do? What is that number? Do you know it?
WARE: Well, Rick, no one can give you a figure of the number of Iraqi souls that have been lost in the five years so far of this conflict. But it's exponentially greater than two or three or even ten times this terrible number of American casualties. We're talking about -- on conservative estimates between 80 thousand to 100,000 Iraqis have lost their lives.
And that's not to mention more than 4 million Iraqis are displaced from their homes. 2 million are lost here in Iraq wanting to return home. 2 million more plus are beyond this country's border and there seems little hope that any of them to return.
And the entire social fabric of this country has been torn asunder with a legacy of this war that it's now divided along sectarian lines, Sunni versus Shiite, when it never was before. Not even under Saddam. So the impact and the toll that this conflict has taken on these countries is almost immeasurable. [Transcript]
Some may fault Sanchez for saying "double, triple" and appearing grossly ignorant, but I'd like to give him a pat on the back. After all, we all know who the really ignorant people are: the ones who don't ask any questions and keep believing it's "double, triple."
Journalists mess up now and then. It just happens -- even when you're trying your best to get everything
right. Perhaps you wrote "Hilary" instead of "Hillary." Perhaps you said "Hillary made her speech at 9 p.m." when she really made her speech at 8 p.m. And perhaps -- if your day is really going poorly -- you interviewed the wrong Hillary.
It was incorrectly reported in Tuesday’s Tribune Chronicle that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton answered questions from voters in a local congressman’s office.
Reporter John Goodall, who was assigned to the story, spoke by telephone with Hillary Wicai Viers, who is a communications director in U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson’s staff. According to the reporter, when Viers answered the phone with ‘‘This is Hillary,’’ he believed he was speaking with the Democratic presidential candidate, who had made several previous visits to the Mahoning Valley.
The quotes from Viers were incorrectly attributed to Clinton.
Wilson, the 6th District representative, hosted the first of six ‘‘economic listening tours’’ in his office on Boardman Canfield Road Monday. The talks were for people living in Columbiana and Mahoning counties. Wilson’s district stretches from Mahoning County to Scioto on the Kentucky border.
‘‘We rely on reporters to gather accurate information, and in this case, that obviously did not happen,” said Frank Robinson, editor of the paper. He said the the newspaper takes the matter very seriously and the situation is being reviewed. [Link]
As mistakes in journalism go, Goodall's article is a pretty big one (though not as unforgivable as plagiarism). I'm really surprised he didn't know he wasn't interviewing Clinton. Perhaps he didn't get the memo from the Society of Professional Journalists.
MEMO TO ALL JOURNALISTS
Some of our members have asked if there's a way to determine if they're really interviewing Hillary Clinton. Here are some clues. It's not Hillary Clinton if:
1. She answers the phone.
2. The next primary election is in Pennsylvania and you're writing for a small newspaper in Warren, Ohio.
3. She does not use the words "My opponent says ..." and "Under the current administration ..."
4. She can pronounce local names such as "Mahoning" and "Scioto."
5. She makes no reference to the prosperity of the 1990s.
6. She ends the call by saying, "Call me anytime, John. And don't forget to add me on Facebook."
Africa, even in the post-colonial era, has often been called the "dark continent" or referred to as "darkest
Africa," mainly by people who have never set foot in Africa and apparently pictured it as one vast jungle upon which the sun never shined. Some have evidently relied on the words of tourists who visited Africa and never took off their sunglasses. ("You wouldn't believe it, Bob, even their sugar was dark!") It's been left to writers like me, who've spent years in Africa, to help shed some light on it. But to no avail.
As National Public Radio ombudsman (ombudswoman?) Alicia C. Shepard wrote in her blog, NPR newscaster Jean Cochran had to apologize recently for saying on Valentine's Day that President Bush was off on a visit to the "dark continent."
"I had no idea the term would be found offensive," said Cochran, who joined NPR in 1981. "I will concede antiquated but I was unaware it was 'racist and irredeemable,' as one person put it in an email. I was floored. Am I insensitive? I don't know how that could be since I didn't know there was anything to be sensitive about. I understood the term to refer to the African jungle. It's a canopy blocking out the light. A geographical term." [Link]
I could be wrong, but I think someone has been watching one too many Tarzan movies. Most Africans have never been to a jungle. The closest I've ever come to being in a jungle was in Baltimore.
Cochran is correct in one sense. Originally, the term "dark continent" came into use in the 19th century to describe a continent largely unknown and mysterious to Europeans. Explorer Henry M. Stanley used it in his 1878 book, Through the Dark Continent.
In fact, it is still used today, but in context. Because of the dearth of electricity on much of the continent, satellite imaging from outer space depicts much of Africa at night as literally a dark continent. An article in The Economist last July, on how investors view Africa, refers to it as the "dark continent." "With all this concern of offending people, it is important for people to understand why and where the term exists," said Neal Weintraub, an author of four books on investing, who provided NPR The Economist example. [Link]
I don't buy that reasoning for the term's longevity. I don't think it has anything to do with electricity, even if Bill Gates has more lights in his front yard than Lusaka International Airport.
It's all about ignorance, a whole bunch of people who are still, despite our best efforts, in the dark.
The media make mistakes more often than you think. Just ask Montreal-based
journalist Craig
Silverman, who
keeps track of their corrections and apologies on his website Regret the Error. His review of 2007 errors includes the egregious, the entertaining and the downright exasperating.
Barack Obama has been the victim of media error several times, including twice by CNN. The first time, to headline a story about the search for America's most wanted terrorist, CNN asked, "Where's Obama?" The second time, the network reported that a mall shooting had occurred in Obama, Nebraska. And next year, they're going to do a story on the famous Portuguese explorer Vasco Obama.
The media haven't been kind to people with Muslim names. A number of them have been mistakenly labeled as terrorists, particularly in British publications, Silverman writes. Here's a correction from The Sun:
An article on 2 February "Hate on Shelves" about a police raid at a bookshop wrongly suggested in the first edition that Imran Khan, pictured above, was a US captive held in Guantanamo Bay. In fact, Mr Khan, a photo journalist and film maker, has never been a US captive nor involved in terrorist activities or allegations and is a head leaseholder unconnected with the business of the bookshop. We apologise to Mr Khan for the embarrassment caused.[Link]
Imran Khan is a head leaseholder? I would have thought a former cricketer would be doing something else, perhaps running for office.
Here's a correction from the Sentinel-Review (Woodstock, Ontario):
In an article in Monday’s newspaper, there may have been a misperception about why a Woodstock man is going to Afghanistan on a voluntary mission. Kevin DeClark is going to Afghanistan to gain life experience to become a police officer when he returns, not to shoot guns and blow things up. The Sentinel-Review apologizes for any embarrassment this may have caused. [Link]
You can gain "life experience" in Afghanistan -- and you can also gain "death experience."
Continue reading "Sorry, we messed up again and again and again" »
