On Lara Logan tragedy...
1. This is a tragedy.2. It is a real story and the details – should – be known. I know it throws people into a tiff when the victim is a reporter covering a story, but then that becomes the story and this should be front page news. Reporters cover tragedy all the time…no reason why this should be any different; even if it is awkward.
3. It is part of the story because it shows a fissure in the narrative. The mainstream media narrative on this has been a childish “good Muslim rebels vs. evil Western backed dictator”. This shows that that narrative is false, and again, the media is so unwilling to even begin to understand the brutality that comes to many women in Islamic countries.
4. The phrase used in the release, “brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating,” to me suggests multiple gang rapes. True unmitigated horror. If that is what happened, then that should be told. The term sexual assault is too vague; legally it can mean anything from rape to a mere tweak of the buttock. Why is the left so afraid of confronting this issue?
5. Guaranteed, that either before the end of this television season or during next, at least one of the legal or medical shows on tv will feature an episode where a blonde journalist is gang raped by a bunch of evangelicals at a Tea Party rally while a bunch of Muslims come to her rescue. Guaranteed. Charlize Theron will probably be courted for a feature version that shows Coptic Christians were responsible.
6. The Western progressive left, is out to bloody lunch when it comes to even remotely understanding fundamentalist Islam. Logan is a victim, but she is a victim not only of fundamentalist Islam, but of western ignorance. I hope she continues to report, and the next time she is in a newsroom and a group of her collegues is preparing a piece on the evangelical theocracy or the patriarchal evils of Catholics while lamenting the post 9/11 backlash against the “religion of peace”, she can loudly clear her throat and set the record straight.
posted by Nicol DuMoulin @ 4:47 PM
6 comments
