Watch: CNN compares traditional Maori greeting to Chippendales and horny emus
How long does it take for the most trusted news source to turn a boring non-story into a racist, xenophobic nightmare?
About 13 seconds it turns out, and that’s only because CNN news correspondent Jeanne Moos takes her time narrating the intro.
The only thing surprising about this is that it wasn’t split-screened with the fucking plane.
When this was on the news here in NZ, there were some saying that we kiwis should calm the fuck down, that there are bigger issues to get upset about than one little news reel. And what did Moos herself say as an apology, something along the lines of, “Oh, I’m sorry some people didn’t get my satire.”
Satire? Yeah, no. I don’t expect everyone to understand our traditions off the bat, but there’s poking fun, and then there’s being wilfully fucking ignorant. And she paints a picture of the ignorant and arrogant American, oh, haha, look at their silly traditions, we’re nowhere near as silly. Add a dash of, OMG NEKKID BUTT because what’s a bit of prudery on top of ignorance and arrogance?
I cringe to think that any Americans who watched that broadcast let that actually colour their perception of my country. And sadly, I know that there are, they’re the ones that used to ask me what language we speak in New Zealand, or if I have any “may-or-ee” ancestry, or if I’ve ever seen snow (this, even after LotR had come out, I guess all those snowy ranges were CGI, huh?). I know not every American is a dumb hick, but my experience when living in the US was encountering a fair amount of people who accepted what they saw on tv at face value, who wouldn’t take the extra effort to look things up for extra info.
Moos may like to hide behind the whole, “Oh, it’s satire!” explanation, but yeah, if she actually wants to call herself a journalist, then she should have taken the time to understand what the hell was actually going on in the ceremonies, and upon presenting it to the American public, actually made an effort to inform and educate her viewers. Let’s leave the satire to people who actually know what they’re doing.
And this is why I stick to watching Rachel Maddow.