[Promoted by susanhu. This is an important take on Jill Carroll’s situation that I’ve not read elsewhere.]
Written last night, cross-posted at the paper tiger
Well, one of them anyway. Hey, I’m pissed off about a lot of things tonight. But I’ll leave the gross outrages to other, more articulate bloggers (check out this post from Digby for a little soul-soothing, if you are in need of it, as I was).
Here’s my smaller outrage of the day: the headline to this AP article about abducted journalist Jill Carroll –
“New Video Shows Kidnapped Reporter Weeping.”
Followed by this lede and opening:
The U.S. journalist Jill Carroll, weeping and veiled, appeared on a new videotape aired Monday by Al-Jazeera, and the Arab television station said she appealed for the release of all Iraqi women prisoners.
The video was dated Saturday, two days after the U.S. military released five Iraqi women from custody.
Carroll, 28, was crying and wore a conservative Islamic veil as she spoke to the camera, sitting in front of a yellow and black tapestry. The Al-Jazeera newscaster said she appealed for U.S. and Iraqi authorities to free all women prisoners to help “in winning her release.”
Well, okay. It’s legitimate to report that Carroll was crying in the video. But to lead with it? … continued below …
Did the headlines about injured ABC anchorman Bob Woodruff read: “Wounded News Anchor Cries in Pain After Roadside Bombing”? Which he did, apparently. I mean, wouldn’t you?
Jill Carroll was abducted three weeks ago, and I don’t want to think too much about how she’s been treated and what kind of condition she’s in, because the whole situation is horrific and devastating. But to lead with the terror and degradation aspects of this strikes me as…I don’t know. Prurient? Sexist, certainly. A way to whip up the outrage level to support a war that most of the American public has grown weary of, maybe.
From what I’ve read about Jill Carroll, she is a brave, resourceful journalist who cares deeply about her work. Reducing her to a weeping victim in a headline is disrespectful and dehumanizing. The most important news here is that Carroll is still alive, or at least she was two days ago, more than a week after the deadline set by her kidnappers for her execution. And that’s what the headline should have said. “New Tape Shows Kidnapped Reporter Alive.” You know? Something like that.
Every time I see this fucking headline, which has been in the top news stories on Yahoo all day and all night, I feel sick. I am sick with outrage at her kidnappers, who really are thugs and barbarians and cowardly swine. I am sick with outrage that a talented woman has been reduced to a weak, weeping stereotype. And I am sick with outrage at an American President who started this war to fulfill neocon dreams of Imperial ambition and his own sick need to prove that he’s a bigger man than his father.
Why not just tell the story straight? It seems that many in this country cannot even function without reliance on stereotypes.
Know what else? After reading Lisa’s story a second time, it dawned on me that it’s fucking sexist too.
WOMEN CRY. MEN DON’T.
that was what pissed me off so much about it – the outright sexism. We have no idea what’s going on, and that’s how they write their headline? To prompt big strong men to puff out their chests and rescue the poor weak woman? it’s sickening.
Never mind that this whole thing could be solved simply, by the US Army releasing the hostages it’s holding in violation of international law.
She had so much daring.
God, I hope she makes it.
I’ve been listening to interviews on C-Span, CNN, etc. of that WaPo reporter who wrote her account of her time in Iraq.
THE FEAR she still shows as she talks about how frightened she was all the time, and she didn’t take nearly the risks that Jill did, best I know.
Say, Lisa, right after she was kidnapped, her name was released early but the CSM begged people to remove it … so I took it off a couple comments here at BT / apologizing for erasing people’s posts, but I felt I had to .
Anyway, before I did that, I looked her up. She is the one who wrote some of the great stories about Marla, who was killed on the road to the Baghdad Airport.
Didn’t you quote one of her stories about Marla?
I don’t remember if I did, but I do remember those stories. They were a great tribute to another brave woman.
Marla’s last name? I can’t remember.
Marla Ruzicka
On ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption” talk show yesterday, they had a story on Roger Federer winning the Australian Open, and showed him crying when addressing the audience with the trophy. The two hosts didn’t make a big deal of it; they understood that it was an emotional moment for him.
Just thought I’d let you know that sometimes, men do cry…and the media shows it…
Hee! For some reason, men are allowed to cry when they participate in sporting events! I know this, because I watch a lot of football and baseball…