What's in a name?

Category: Americas, Life & Society Topics: Celebrities Views: 4159
4159

What's in a name? Very, very little-particularly when it comes to divining the motivations of the perpetrator of a violent crime. But that will not stop media analysts from reading into the fact that one of the shooters-and possibly the only shooter-at this afternoon's massacre at Fort Hood was named...Nidal Malik Hasan.

Take Shep Smith, the Fox News anchor oft cited for being one of 'the good guys'-the real, responsible reporters-at Fox. Smith, covering the network's 5pm time slot for an appendicitis-stricken Glenn Beck, interviewed Texas senator Kay Bailey Hutchison about the Fort Hood events. In the process, Smith went out of his way to stress the decision he'd made to err on the side of caution when it came to revealing the identity of the shooting suspect. Until military sources had confirmed the name, Smith said, he wouldn't report it.

That decision would be admirable-had it been purely about journalistic accuracy, respecting the suspect's family, etc. But it wasn't. It was also about the name. And what the name, you know, meant. As Smith put it: "The name tells us a lot, does it not, Senator?"

The assumption being-well, you know what the assumption is.

Below, my transcript of the exchange:

Smith: Senator Hutchison, uh, other news organizations are identifying the shooter-the now deceased uh, uh, officer in the United States Army [coughs]-who, as you've reported to us here, was about to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan, was upset about that, and then today went on this shooting rampage. I've been given a name that's being reported elsewhere, and, uh, I'm not-are-have you been given a name, and what do you know about this suspect? How much are you able to tell us?

Hutchison: Well, I have been given a name, but I would not want to confirm that, because I don't know if this person's family has been notified. So I would not want to give the name. I do know-I, I have been given a name.

Smith: We've been given a name, as well, and, quite frankly, I'm not comfortable going with it 'til it's given to me by the United States military, and they say, 'This is who it is.' Unless we get it separately. But the name tells us a lot, does it not, Senator?

Hutchison: It does, Shepard. And that's why it's a very sad situation.

Smith-and Hutchison-and all the others who are tempted to engage in this kind of Muslim-to-murderer implication-mongering-would do well to heed the warning of ABC's Jake Tapper: "No word on motive yet," he Twittered earlier this afternoon, "and at a time like this people should listen to their better angels."

Megan Garber wrote this for the Columbia Journalism Review.


  Category: Americas, Life & Society
  Topics: Celebrities
Views: 4159

Related Suggestions

 
COMMENTS DISCLAIMER & RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
The opinions expressed herein, through this post or comments, contain positions and viewpoints that are not necessarily those of IslamiCity. These are offered as a means for IslamiCity to stimulate dialogue and discussion in our continuing mission of being an educational organization. The IslamiCity site may occasionally contain copyrighted material the use of which may not always have been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. IslamiCity is making such material available in its effort to advance understanding of humanitarian, education, democracy, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, and such (and all) material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.


Older Comments:
NURAINI FROM MALAYSIA said:
well, names are important these days. all the way in asia when i saw the news, and saw the name, i thought 'oh, crud. this is going to be bad, if he's muslim, and not a christian arab.' and he was. and i thought it will be bad for muslims there because the other americans will panic, and americans usually seem unable to separate criminal actions, or even their personal opinion of the criminal's background, from actually taking action against others from the same background but who are unrelated to the criminal actions.

i think that's why americans feel citizens in a given country should agree on pretty much everything, because it becomes such a big deal if they don't.

non-muslim americans perhaps don't understand the internal conflict. maybe it will help if they imagine a future, mainly atheistic military, and being ordered to invade the philippines and kill catholic filipinos, and for no good political reason either. and then some devout catholic soldiers who are also patriotic americans, will surely have very strong internal conflict against being deployed there. some of them might snap, no? especially if there are militant catholics, around expounding war interpretations of the bible to support the filipinos?
2009-11-09

JACOB FURGERSON FROM USA said:
Americans, military and civilian should embrace, shelter in, and evangelize Biblical Christianity for their safety and security even if doing so violates the law, maybe offensive to some, and is not what Obama want's.
2009-11-06

SHARIF FROM USA said:
I mean ...I feel terrible and sadden by the fact that a Major in the US Army and a muslim will be so selfish and commit such a horrible crime to civilians who have nothing to do with the decision to go to War.This is a bad name ti Islam as a whole. He has not helped anybody but took us backwards. It could be that he is actually Mentally insane but since he is a muslim that makes him a worse terrorist.
2009-11-06

T.E. FROM U.S.A. said:
Lol, lol! As if you're not suppose to notice the name!!!!!! I guess 21st multicultural indoctrination was suppose to lobotomize this portion of the brain!
2009-11-06