The hypocrisy of repeating the 'w-word'

[Gilding the Lily]

Does anyone else find it interesting that this author is blasting Howard Kurtz and Frank Rich for quoting someone else's use of the word 'wetback,' but then proceeds to use the word as well?

New York Times columnist Frank Rich wasn't all that careful. In arguing that offensive speech shouldn't be censored, Rich wrote that we should "let Bill O'Reilly talk about 'wetbacks.' ..."

Oh, hello. That is exactly how Rich wrote it -- wetbacks. So what that he was quoting someone else. That's no excuse. If that someone else had used the long version of the n-word, you had better believe that Rich would never have printed it in his column.

Howard Kurtz picked up on the thread. The Washington Post media critic and host of CNN's "Reliable Sources" recently said on his television show that "Bill O'Reilly once referred to Mexicans as wetbacks."

Hello again. Would Kurtz have used the n-word on morning television? No way. So why use the w-word?

Commentary after the jump

 

[local 12 proud]

http://vernondent.blogspot.com/2006/02/car...ologies_16.html

Ive been called a "mick" many times in my life and it just does'nt bother me!

...So get over it "cracker" :bleh:

 

[jerseyfinn]

Nice link 12proud.

The litmus test of language is the context in which you speak. A word is nothing more than a way to pour context into human interactions. Some words are necessarily placed in a "no fly zone".

No problems with context exist on this board ( and a virtual space is indeed sometimes a difficult place to convey your real meaning ). Then again, I suspect that many folks here are of the generation that grows up before the PC police begin to shackle public dialogue and in the process castrate individuals' imaginations and the tolerance and wisdom that one learns when life sometimes jostles you around.

My own awakening comes while I work full time and go to university to pick up a BA in history. It's an endeavor that I completely enjoy, but it takes years to work your way to a diploma when you take but one or two courses at a time. As time goes by, I begin to notice how PC the younger students around me are. Make no mistake, they're bright and intelligent. But their interpersonal skills are attenuated by being raised in a PC environment which IMO is no different than Staln's Russia in the sense of open ideas and free thought. How ironic that PC logic takes away the very freedom of the individual it claims to protect.

Fortunately, the operating room where I make my real living remains relatively devoid of PC-think. It must have something to do with seeing real life which is not always so cute and happy . . . humility is perhaps a better word. But as younger nurses and docs come into the picture, they too are constraining the world the rest of us live in.

Oh well . . . f**k em if they can't take a joke. I didn't hurt anyone's self esteem did I?

Barry

 

[delldude]

http://vernondent.blogspot.com/2006/02/car...ologies_16.html

Ive been called a "mick" many times in my life and it just does'nt bother me!

...So get over it "cracker" :bleh:

Imus said it right...he didn't intentionally mean to offend those women at Rutgers but in the same breath he defended his right to say what he wants when he wants....anything else is an attack on the first amendment.

 

[UAL_TECH]

Nice link 12proud.

The litmus test of language is the context in which you speak. A word is nothing more than a way to pour context into human interactions. Some words are necessarily placed in a "no fly zone".

No problems with context exist on this board ( and a virtual space is indeed sometimes a difficult place to convey your real meaning ). Then again, I suspect that many folks here are of the generation that grows up before the PC police begin to shackle public dialogue and in the process castrate individuals' imaginations and the tolerance and wisdom that one learns when life sometimes jostles you around.

My own awakening comes while I work full time and go to university to pick up a BA in history. It's an endeavor that I completely enjoy, but it takes years to work your way to a diploma when you take but one or two courses at a time. As time goes by, I begin to notice how PC the younger students around me are. Make no mistake, they're bright and intelligent. But their interpersonal skills are attenuated by being raised in a PC environment which IMO is no different than Staln's Russia in the sense of open ideas and free thought. How ironic that PC logic takes away the very freedom of the individual it claims to protect.

Fortunately, the operating room where I make my real living remains relatively devoid of PC-think. It must have something to do with seeing real life which is not always so cute and happy . . . humility is perhaps a better word. But as younger nurses and docs come into the picture, they too are constraining the world the rest of us live in.

Oh well . . . f**k em if they can't take a joke. I didn't hurt anyone's self esteem did I?

Barry

Just don't call me an A$$ unless you really mean it... 😛


B) UT

 

[Garfield1966]

I am not convinced the Imus thing was a PC issue. At least not directly. If you stand back a few feet here is what I see.

Imus said something on his radio show. It pissed some people off. Those people had a right to be pissed off. As a matter of fact, everybody in this country has a right to be pissed off about what ever they choose to be pissed off about. From the time Imus said what he said to the time he was fired was about 1 week. During that time, several big sponsors pulled out of his program. While Sharpton etal may have the impression that they were the one who got him fired (in a round about way they helped stir the pot) the bottom line seems to be that CBS canned him because of money. Had the sponsors not pulled their money, would we have had the same result? I don’t know.

Isn’t this how the system is supposed to work? It’s not like a crowd went out and picked some random person off the street and got him canned. Imus has been saying crap like this for ages. He finally pissed off the wrong person(s) and they exacted their pound of flesh. I am not saying that I support or disagree with Imus (never watched him) because I have far more important issues to contend with in my life. But when you stand back and look at it, isn’t this how it supposed to work? There was an ‘election’ held and Imus lost. Sometimes the minority can speak louder and get their way (look at Fallwell and Robertson) but that is the way yhr system works.

Just my $0.02 worth.

 

[delldude]

I'd have to say a couple of loud mouth so called representatives of the black nation who previously have said and done similar things public and never appologized or retracted statements caught a Cracker with his pants down.CBS and their advertisers messed there drawers facing public issues with these loudmouthed so called representatives of the black nation and succumbed to their pressure.

 

[UAL_TECH]

I am not convinced the Imus thing was a PC issue. At least not directly. If you stand back a few feet here is what I see.

Imus said something on his radio show. It pissed some people off. Those people had a right to be pissed off. As a matter of fact, everybody in this country has a right to be pissed off about what ever they choose to be pissed off about. From the time Imus said what he said to the time he was fired was about 1 week. During that time, several big sponsors pulled out of his program. While Sharpton etal may have the impression that they were the one who got him fired (in a round about way they helped stir the pot) the bottom line seems to be that CBS canned him because of money. Had the sponsors not pulled their money, would we have had the same result? I don’t know.

Isn’t this how the system is supposed to work? It’s not like a crowd went out and picked some random person off the street and got him canned. Imus has been saying crap like this for ages. He finally pissed off the wrong person(s) and they exacted their pound of flesh. I am not saying that I support or disagree with Imus (never watched him) because I have far more important issues to contend with in my life. But when you stand back and look at it, isn’t this how it supposed to work? There was an ‘election’ held and Imus lost. Sometimes the minority can speak louder and get their way (look at Fallwell and Robertson) but that is the way yhr system works.

Just my $0.02 worth.

Well, you be wrong.
It was/is a PC issue because he was a ‘white boy’ saying it.
Plain and simple.
He may have been caught up with having black friends that dissed each other while shooting the chit, and playing the dozens.
He probably felt too comfortable that his statement would be taken in a like manner, which it wasn’t, by a ‘few’.

Been there, done that, no T’shirt…

JMHO,
B) UT

 

[Garfield1966]

Well, you be wrong.
It was/is a PC issue because he was a ‘white boy’ saying it.
Plain and simple.
He may have been caught up with having black friends that dissed each other while shooting the chit, and playing the dozens.
He probably felt too comfortable that his statement would be taken in a like manner, which it wasn’t, by a ‘few’.

Been there, done that, no T’shirt…

JMHO,
B) UT

To say that it was merely a PC issue is to say that no one was insulted by it and I do not believe that to be the case. To say that it was merely a PC issue devalues the emotions o the girls he insulted. I wonder if the reaction would have been the same had he not been talking about the basket ball team. Given the crap he has been spewing for 30 some odd years I would tend to argue the it would not have ended up the way it had. Are their folks who say the same things and get away with it? Yes probably so. It seems that for Imus, it was just his turn to get b1tch slapped. The planets were aligned and it was his turn. Fair? Don’t know and don’t care. IMO, the market had just as big an impact as Sharpton etal. Should Sharpton has as much influence as he does? IMO no but this is a free society (sort of) and he is what he is. If the people cannot see what people like Sharpton, Fallwell, Limbaugh, Franken really are, then that is their problem. As far as I am concerned, Imus crossed a line with me. You do not pick on kids. If they would have been the LA Lakers or the Cowboys or who ever…. Go for it. They are grown ups and I personally do not care. People have said far worse and got away with it. These were kids who were doing something with their life. That is where I drew the line and he crossed it with 2 feet. Sometimes “I’m sorry†does not do it. This was one of those times for me.

 

[jerseyfinn]

. . . I am not convinced the Imus thing was a PC issue . . .

I see your point Garfield. Imus has always been and in this instance is about bad behavior which could be characterized as insensitive, arrogant, and at the very least, with a racial arrogance to it.

The true hypocrisy is the incredulity of the community which "suddenly" feels greater outrage than usual. This community, the broadcast industry itself and the people who listen to the programming have stood on the sidelines as the line of ethos separating acceptable from unacceptable behavior has been pushed and nudged beyond reasonable limits. This incredulity is a seperate entity from the real focus of Imu's words, the Rutgers girls who were indeed needlessly, harshly and unnecessarily insulted.

It's all a very predictable game now-a-days. Someone says something out of bounds, and depending upon who you are and whom you insult, it's either no big deal or a crime against humanity and the usual racial/gender/interest groups cynically assail you as if it's genocide. Here, they hide beind the PC banner.

Political parties do it every day as well. What else are the dems if not mini-Imus's insulting the office of the Executive while insisting it's only the man in the suit they're after? Bad behavior is bad behavior.

Americans have long since lost the ability to hold a dialog with each other. That dialog does not always have to be about agreement. But it can and should be conducted with respect and dignity lest ideas be reduced to mud.

Should Imus have been fired? I say no, unless the industry/society is going to redefine the entire game and hold everyonoe to higher standards. Otherwise, it's rule of the mob and the mob does not represent right, it's simply behaving the loudest and with the most rancor.

Barry

 

[delldude]

Heads at CBS just don't want to be in the middle of no Black Thingy,ya know.
They stopped by Jesse's pad just south of Hymie Town for directions and bumped into 'ol Al...

Many conservative and liberal commentators have accused Sharpton of being racist and homophobic. Sharpton was quoted as saying to an audience at Kean College in 1994 that, “White folks was in caves while we was building empires ... We taught philosophy and astrology and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it.â€￾ Sharpton defended his comments by noting that the term “homoâ€￾ was not homophobic but added that he no longer uses the term.Critics have said that the the quote is often used out of context to undermine Sharpton's image[citation needed] Sharpton has since called for an end to perceived homophobia in the African-American community.

Jackson has been criticized for some of the remarks he has made about Jews and Jewish issues: that Nixon was less attentive to poverty in the U.S. because "four out of five [of Nixon's top advisors] are German Jews and their priorities are on Europe and Asia"; that he was "sick and tired of hearing about the Holocaust"; that there are "very few Jewish reporters that have the capacity to be objective about Arab affairs";In addition Rev. Jackson had referred to Jews as "Hymies" and to New York City as "Hymietown" in January 1984 during a conversation with Washington Post reporter, Milton Coleman.

Yeah...its a PC thing for sure GAR.....

Don't see no Crackers jumpin up an down Gar...