Mockery of humanity?
I am replying to a letter that was published in The Daily Star on July 21, entitled "Mockery of Humanity!", written by Rafiqul Islam of Chittagong. In the letter, Mr. Islam talks about CNN's coverage of the recovery of an Iraqi boy, named Youssif, from burns he acquired in January of 2007 when masked men doused him in gasoline. Mr. Islam contends that CNN's coverage of a single act of kindness by the "American authorities" is an "imperialistic hoax". He goes on to say that CNN's recurrent coverage of isolated acts of humanity raise questions as to whether American "media are the mere tools of the ever burgeoning imperialism".
There are a couple of facts that Mr. Islam got wrong in his letter. Although I understand his frustration and anger at the unauthorised and unwarranted war in Iraq, I do feel one must not distort facts in order to promote one's agenda. Youssif's care is being provided by Children's Burn Foundation (http://www.childburn.org), a non-profit organisation based out of California, and is being funded by private citizens who were moved by his story when it first aired on CNN. "American authorities" or the American government were not and are not involved in care giving.
I also wanted to point out that 95% of American media are privately owned and, hence, viewer-ship or subscriber-ship is their bottom line. Each news media has a certain audience that they target and provide news and opinions that this target audience wants to hear or read. Now, I am not affiliated with CNN or claim to have any knowledge as to why CNN provided such extensive coverage of Youssif story, but whatever the reason was, I can assure you it was not part of any imperialistic agenda of the Bush administration. I suspect CNN followed the old journalistic adage: if the story bleeds, then it leads. And Youssif's story certainly did bleed.
In my opinion, the overwhelmingly generous response of the American people to Youssif story when it was first aired on CNN goes to show the deep regret that the American people feel on giving the authority to President Bush to go to war in Iraq. Living in US, I do know that the majority of American people feel a great responsibility to ensure that Iraq becomes a functioning society.
I must point out that Mr. Islam left out a whole aspect of this story, which does not get covered enough in the media. Youssif's burns were caused by fellow Iraqis and put the spotlight on the deep hatred and divisions that exist amongst the Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq. Rather than trying to reconcile the two groups, the neighbouring countries have added fuel to the fire through providing money and arms to various extremist parties in the two groups. Muslims around the world seem to be more concerned about protesting the illegal war purported by the imperialistic government of America, rather than calling for an end to the heinous acts of violence committed by their Muslim brethren on one another.
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