I don't usually complain to my local tv station. They sometimes misspell things on screen, and they sometimes slip and run packaged commercials as news. But it is local covereage and they take their job of informing a very large, spread-out area seriously. We have our local political scandals, "heartland heroes" and villains, murders and drug busts, and good coverage of education (generally), both school and higher ed. But sometimes they just don't think, you know? Today they captioned a story on the 5 p.m. news as "Language of Terrorism." About what language? I'll bet you could guess.
So I sat down, powered up the computer, and wrote them a message and labeled it "high priority" -- I don't know if anyone is there to get it (it is after 5, after all), but I wanted them to know that I, at least, was upset at their easy equivalence of "Arabic = terrorism."
Here is the letter:
I cannot tell you how incredibly disturbing I found the on screen caption "language of terrorism" for a story about students doing a week-long course on Arabic at the University of Iowa. While the most US is at a war in the Middle East against Arabic speakers (one war -- Arabic is not the language of Afghanistan), and the 9/11 hijackers were Arabic-speakers, there are many other terrorists who do not speak Arabic, and Arabic is not a language that makes people into terrorists. Most of those who speak Arabic (millions and millions of people) are no more terrorists than you or I. Arabic is a language of poetry, of science, and of commerce. It is not the language itself that makes terrorism, nor are all speakers of it terrorists. The simple equivalence of this language and terrorism is shocking, and is offensive. Please change this, if possible, before the 6 and 10 p.m. news.