by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
January 5, 2004
Not everyone in the world was delighted that the "Butcher of Baghdad" had been captured. a lot of Sunni Muslims weren’t overly happy when the former dictator of Iraq emerged from his hiding place, disoriented and disheveled. and to hear the anti-american, anti-Israeli CBC tell it, this was the worst news the network had received since former Finance Minister John Manley threatened to cutback their funding.On December 15, the day after the capture of Saddam Hussein by american troops had been made public, the CBC went out of its way to put an anti-american, negative spin on the event. In a story entitled, "Palestinians stunned by Saddam’s capture", on its website CBC mentioned twice, not once, that Saddam was a hero to the Palestinians because he rewarded the families of suicide bombers. Suicide bombers, as we all know blow up Israeli women, children and babies. The piece deals with how one of the darlings of the network, Yasser arafat, was "sad to see an arab leader in a humiliating position." The story made the point that a lot of Palestinians held the same view as arafat. The feelings of Palestinian militants appeared to be more important to the CBC than what Iraqis, who had spent years under the threat of death, torture and rape seemed to feel about Saddam. although many news reports reported that the arab world had mixed reviews, the above story dealt solely with one particular arab group.
a further item that appeared on CBC was entitled, " Respectable Iraqis’ celebrate Saddam’s capture". The use of quotation marks around "Respectable Iraqis" seem to imply that perhaps the Iraqis that were happy Saddam was taken into custody were not all that respectable. This item talks about the arab world in general but then re-iterates, again, about how "saddened" Yasser arafat was about the news. While not mentioning the Saudis or the Egyptians or any other group, CBC devotes a paragraph to again state the "shock and sorrow" of the Palestinians. The reaction of the Palestinians seemed to be the most significant aspect of the events of December 13.
When the fact that Saddam Hussein had been captured was made public on December 14, Paul Martin had been Prime Minister of Canada for less than 48 hours. It seemed to take forever for the new PM to issue a statement but when he finally did, he talked about how the "Iraqians" were better off now that Saddam had been taken into custody.
as anyone over the age of six or anyone who has ever been exposed, even indirectly, to world events in that past year knows, the people of Iraq are called Iraqis--not "Iraqians" as the Right Honourable Paul Martin called them.
a search of the Lexis-Nexis database of newspapers revealed that no major newspaper had reported Martin’s inability to properly name the citizens of Iraq. a look at the search engine, Google, brought up only two hits for the word "Iraqians", both bloggers who were pointing out the mistake that the newly sworn-in senior citizen made in his statement. The search engine also revealed that no television network that posts its news on websites had reported the misstep.
We know that most new leaders such as Martin are given honeymoons by the media and that Hussein’s capture came within hours of the PM assuming office. But the non-mention of Martin’s blunder pointed out the double standard that is employed by the liberal mainstream media. If a right-wing politician had made such a mistake (as George W. Bush frequently did during his presidential campaign) the media would have splashed it on the front pages as they did in Bush’s case. When Bush blundered over names, the media engaged in serious discussions about his lack of understanding of foreign affairs and his ability to run the United States. But when Paul Martin showed that he didn’t know what people who live in a country that has been constantly in the news were called--it was never mentioned. If anything, Martin’s mistake was far more serious than the one that Stockwell Day made during the 2000 federal election campaign when Day had the Niagara River flowing in the wrong direction. That example was constantly used to show that Day was unfit to lead.
at least the CBC knows what the citizens of Iraq are called.