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Shithole journalism: Herald uses word in headline, Globe proves daintier
By adamg on Thu, 01/11/2018 - 8:15pm
As word spread that our racist shitholer-in-chief insulted Haiti and Haitian immigrants, our local dailies had to decide how to describe the word salad being tossed in Washington.
The Herald didn't shy away from the term in its online headline today.
The Globe, however, decided discretion was the better part of journalistic valor:
The Herald used an Associated Press report. The Globe used an account from the Washington Post, which did not shy away from the term. Its headline:
Trump attacks protections for immigrants from ‘shithole’ countries
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Comments
You call these counties
You call these counties shitholes
and you really think it is so
You twit with no class
You are the real ass
It is time for you to go
"counties"
now that changes everything. He's obviously referring to my family from County Mayo. The bastard.
Excremental news
Both CNN and MSNBC have been displaying the word "shithole" for hours. And the actual word has been pronounced again and again on the teevee. We have our shithead president to thank for that.
And the best quote of the day from former the former president of Mexico Vicente Fox, calling Trump's mouth the most foul shithole in the world.
Fox's tweet
Here.
I am now imagining him narrating "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas."
I'm starting to think...
...that Mexico may not pay for the wall, after all.
Sure they will
Trumpy said so today. Indirectly. Through NAFTA.
(@realdonaldtrump Somebody forgot to tell Trumpy the F in NAFTA stands for free)
CNN
CNN actually started the afternoon with sxxxhole, and then they just gave up and went with shithole.
Sxxxhole
Sxxxhole sounds way more crude.
But I thought
The sxxxholes were the big draw for Trumpski.
CNN also used the "R" word
Per Joshua Green on Twitter: Every CNN primetime anchor tonight opened show by calling Trump "racist."
Don Lemon was especially on-point
And he did a great job putting the Trump apologist in his place. I think America is coming to realize what black people (and black comedians) have known for years. White Americans are much more racist then assumed. Of course not all are racist, but those folks in middle America tend to be very racist. I would have a lot more respect for 45 if he just came out and said 'Make America White Again' already.
No we don't have the president to thank for that
" We have our shithead president to thank for that."
No we don't have the president to thank for that. We have Fox and MSNBC to thank for running it over and over and over. We get the message, there is no need to repeat things so endlessly.The quality of TV news has declined drastically.
If your sensibilities are offended
If your sensibilities are offended by the use of the SHITHOLE - Imagine how you might feel if you are from an African nation or Haiti
WGBH even primmer than the Globe
Not only does it use the phrase "vulgar language" in its headline, it can't bring itself to spell out the word in its version of the story, going instead with "s***hole countries."
Man, the art of the racist dog-whistle has really fallen on
hard times. It used to be harder to make the connection between phrases like "shithole countries" and "countries with brown and black people".
MASHA
Maybe that's Trump being clever: get us to focus on
the vulgar language instead of the loathsome racism behind it.
Nope
Whenever one plays the "Stupid — or Nefarious?" game assessing his tactics, "stupid" always wins.
Why Not Both?
n/t
Only if you're stupid
The cry of "this is a distraction" should better be written as "this distracts stupid people with low attention spans". It doesn't distract anyone with normal intelligence. Astonishing how your mom always could remember that the oven was on while she folded laundry, innit?
Intention and sentiment should me focus not word choice
A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart. Luke 6:45
New York Daily News wins
New York Daily News wins
https://twitter.com/NYDailyNews/status/951609805512331264
Executive Time
He should really focus on what he does best, "executive time"!
Always can count on local stories here on U Hub
Oh wait, the Herald and Globe are in the headline. that makes it local.
Statement from state Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry
Who, just in case you didn't know, is Haitian-American:
Forget the Golden Globes.
Forget the Golden Globes. That's the kind of statement that makes me want to say, "Linda for President!"
State Senator Linda Dorcena
State Senator Linda Dorcena Forry.
Also known as (at least, according to the WBZ reporter who said it multiple times in a Friday morning interview): Linda Dorcini Forry.
I think some days he forgets
I think some days he forgets to take his meds. I've had relatives with Alzheimers & common symptom is they lose any semblance of filter or appropriateness.
He has always been an
He has always been an ignorant piece of shit who says dumb and awful things, though.
I don't disagree with you
I don't disagree with you about Trump Kinopio, but you have used the same word on this forum referring to red states, which makes you no better than Trump.
10,000 Likes
Disheartening to see 23 people (so far) don't get or don't have a problem with that connection.
I am pointing out the
I am pointing out the failures of a political party, not an entire nation or a specific race. People choose to continue to vote republican and against their own interest and it has resulted in their states being failures. I am not insulting someone for how they were born. I am defending myself because they are making the country I live in a worse place.
Trump has been a racist his whole life.
From his letter-Cs on rental applications to launching his political career with birtherism to his Muslim ban to his cozying up to neo-Nazis and Klansmen, he's sung from the same choirbook for 50 years.
This isn't forgetting: it's naked intent. He knows who the hateful core of his historically-low 40% approval rating is. They're his firewall against impeachment. He clings to them like a rat to a punctured life raft.
OK, and
No, people shouldn't use language like that in public.
No, not all countries are equally desirable places to live.
Was that better? Of course not. It means the same thing. And it's factually true.
Not the same thing
The "polite" version of what your white-supremacist in chief said would be: "Why do we need more black people from black countries like Haiti? We need more white people from white countries like Norway."
So vagueness is acceptable
but any specificity is beyond the pale.
It's OK to acknowledge that some animals are more equal than others, but don't you dare point out which ones. It's OK to acknowledge that there is vague turmoil in parts of the world, but to call out Islamic terrorism as a specific example is $PREFIX-phobic?
I didn't vote for Trump, but I probably will in 2020. There's more clearheadedness and truth in his bullshit and lies than there is in Democrats' rhetorical gymnastics and not-so-inoffensive vagueness.
What's that funky smell?
Oh, it's the *
"Trump in 2020"- cute!
You gonna write him in?
That's not the point
Why should people from Norway have preference for immigrating just because their average standard of living is higher? He's saying Norwegians are better people. Preferring one race over another is the exact definition of racism.
Trumpski loves Scandinavians
That's why old Fred didn't teach his kids the German he learned from draft-dodging whoremonger Friedrich (who started the family's chain migration), but pretended to be Swedish. It's not just so they could rent to Jews after the war. It's scandiphilia!
Trump is so clueless. People
Trump is so clueless. People from Norway don't want to move to the US anyway. They are the happiest country on earth. They have a better quality of life in Norway than here and their country isn't run by a dumb and crazy racist. Imagine someone from Oslo seeing what a red state like West Virginia is like? They'd get on the first Norwegian flight back home.
Maybe not *the* point
but it is *a* point.
If on the whole you'd rather live in Norway than in Uganda, Tunisia, Iran, Afghanistan, South Africa, Russia, or Venezuela, that does say something, doesn't it? About individual people perhaps not, but about the collective culture yes. That's not pleasant to acknowledge because being civilized and generally kindhearted people we'd like to think the best about everyone, but it just isn't true.
Racism, cultural chauvinism...call it whatever nasty name you think will discourage critical thinking. My point is that the imperative to love thy neighbor shouldn't blind you to reality.
Characterizing a country versus characterizing a people
I don't think anyone is going to deny that Norway is a more desirable place to live than Haiti, with a better educated population, better functioning society and civic institutions, etc.
What doesn't follow from that, however, is that our immigration policy ought to favor the unemployed street criminal from Norway over the prize-winning biomedical researcher from Haiti.
Immigration policy ought to focus on the likelihood of the individual adding value to our nation, and not on that individual's country of origin.
Agreed, but
most people aren't nobel laureates waiting to happen.
What gets lost in the shit-talking is the serious question of whether the finite number of slots we give out should go to an average joe from Norway or and average joe from a place where women aren't allowed to show their face in public.
Completely the wrong question
That question makes no more sense than asking whether the limited number of slots we have should go to people born on Tuesdays or people born on Thursdays. We're all about the individual here, are we not? Given the cost of processing an application for citizenship, looking into the applicants individual, personal situation rather than trying to make policy based on country of origin, doesn't really raise the processing cost or introduce further delays.
Not agreed
Culture is sticky. People shouldn't be judged entirely by their circumstances but it's a mistake to assume circumstances don't affect people. Assimilation isn't a magic wand, and people can and do bring their cultures with them when they come here. Some of cultures are more compatible with how we like to think of ourselves than others.
Yes, some cultures are more compatible than others
With that said, I believe that the average joe from "a shithole country" looking to come to the US is more likely than not to be an ambitious go-getter looking to improve his situation; such is exactly what we want, isn't it?
It is
if it were true. And when it is true, I'm in favor of it. You and I are disagreeing over facts rather than philosophy. I contend that not all countries are equally likely to produce ambitious go-getters who are likely to succeed here and our immigration laws ought not be predicated on the assumption that they are.
There's only one point on which we disagree
Agreed, and so what? That means, if we screen for likelihood of success, we'll end up accepting a higher percentage of applicants from some countries than from others. But it does not follow that a sensible strategy is to exclude people just because they come from a country whose citizens are less likely to succeed here.
Here's an analogy:
Nigerian people are, on the whole, taller than Japanese people. But a basketball coach who says, "I want to favor Nigerians and exclude Japanese" is somewhat idiotic when it would be so much more effective to say, "I want to favor tall people and exclude short people." It's not like it's hard to tell how tall someone is, why even waste your time with national origin?
Waste is inevitable
Human beings aren't perfect and in particular they aren't perfect allocators of resources and time. National origin will inevitably be used as shorthand, without malice, for exactly what you're talking about.
Hammering on it as "racism" is orthogonal to that issue, but is sure does make for...spirited...conversation.
"Cultural Chauvinism"
I know its not "pleasant to acknowledge", but the civilized, kindhearted people of the United State are in many ways responsible for the dysfunctional situations in El Salvador and Haiti. The "collective culture" as you say has been systematically undermined by the policies of their rich, powerful neighbor. Read some history:
Start Here on Haiti: https://twitter.com/KatzOnEarth/status/951656979658870785
Start Here on El Salvador: http://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/21/world/how-us-actions-helped-hide-salva...
And this https://www.amazon.com/Histor.../dp/1784781711/ref=sr_1_1... This is a great book that describes the horrifically dangerous life for people in El Salvador living under sway of the drug gangs and explains how things got so bad. Hint: US policies and drug demand contributed mightily
Finish by ending your routine implication that these countries are somehow culturally inferior to their hegemon to the north...because it makes you sound racist and ignorant.
America the all-powerful
What exactly is it that we did to the good people of Venezuela, Uganda, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, or Afghanistan that turned them into what they are now? Did Dick Cheney conjure up the Haiti earthquake with his weather machine?
Did the CIA really invent AIDS to kill black people? Did Obama *literally* found ISIS?
I'm willing to acknowledge that US policy isn't universally benign, but I'm not in any hurry to take responsibility for every single bad thing that anyone everywhere the world over has done to themselves. And even that is beside the point. The practical question of what to do with a mess you've made doesn't seem like it should always be answered with 'sweep it up under your own rug and hope it doesn't bite you.' Churchill's line about feeding the crocodile comes to mind too.
Roman,
here is a bit of reading for you in regards to your first sentence:
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/2017-12-12/another...
https://www.amazon.com/Wrong-Enemy-America-Afghanistan-2001-2014/dp/0544...
I'll let you do your own research on the other countries. Sigh.
Your post is a combo plate of ignorance and just plain "huh?"
I don't anyone would argue that our country is responsible for "every single bad thing" that ever happened to "anyone everywhere the world over", but we, as a nation, have done a lot of bad things and that, my friend, is the fact.
You've been up all day moving the goalposts
Because actual history and stupid conspiracy theories are the same thing, right? If you can't dispute the facts, change the argument. Goodbye, Roman. Enjoy the rest of your life living inside your racist, uninformed little worldview.
Minor history
Venezuela: Supported the Perez Jiminez regime? CIA helping Seguridad Nacional?
Afghanistan: Created the Taliban.
Stop
Roman, you're an unrepentant, unrelenting apologist for a racist would-be dictator. It's not a good look. You can't shine shit, and you need to just stop trying.
I think
He knows exactly what he's doing. It's rather disingenuous and unfortunate of him, but it's (and that generally is) his MO.
Fascinating to watch Roman
tip-toeing around his racist inclinations - every time he posts something he gets closer and closer to drifting into white nationalist dogma and talking points.
Oh no!
A leftie is calling me a racist. I'm shocked! Shocked!
Considering the rather low bar to being labeled a bigot, sexist, or science-hater these days, I don't know whether to thank you, argue with you, or just ignore you as one would a child repeating words he's learned but doesn't understand.
I think I'll opt for the middle option: I know you are, but what am I!
Low bar?
Don't sell yourself short, buddy. You EARNED it!
Same bar it always was
Despite you and your leader's attempts to move the evil goalposts or whatever that process is called.
Oh Forget It
Roman has no understanding or grasp of US history and US Foreign Policy. Things like Manifest Destiny or the marginalization of Haiti after the slaves managed to kick out the brutal overlords who stole them from Africa are just totally lost on him.
Of course he doesn't understand his own racism and seeks to pretend it isn't what it is by using his words. He has no clue about what he is speaking about!
"No, not all countries are
"No, not all countries are equally desirable places to live."
Oh, very very true.
But Trump's comment pretty much means that he thinks people born in undesirable places are themselves undesirable and should be confined there.
Has nothing to do with Boston
Has nothing to do with Boston Adam. Stay grumpy.
Except that it does
Speaking just of Haiti, there are several thousand Haitians and Haitian-Americans in Boston. In any case, I was curious how the two daily papers in Boston would cover the story.
NPR says they can't say the word on the radio
because of FCC regulations
That's funny, because I've heard the F-word on NPR
It was a while ago, but they were broadcasting audio between US fighter pilots who were in the process of shooting down an enemy plane from....don't recall where but I it was one of them doodie-orifice countries.
Anyway, one pilot clearly yelled "I CAN'T FIRE. I don't have a FUCKING TONE [missile guidance lock tone]!" and they aired it uncensored.
Years later, All Things Considered was doing a piece on a French rap group and the reporter calmly explained that the name of the group was French for "Fuck your Mother." Classy, and accurate.
FCC rules are likely online.
FCC rules are likely online. Look it up, Trumpster.
In your damn dreams
am I a Trumpster. Independent all the way.
I just admitted to listening to NPR for crying out loud.
Questionable before 10pm (safe harbor)
It would be fantastic if they aired the statement anyway and the courts had to rule that Trump's words violated community standards.
They said it on WBUR this
They said it on WBUR this morning. Perhaps they found a way around the regs, or decided they didn't apply here?
I was listening to WGBH this morning
Had to check because I tend to wander between the two stations without a strong preference.
Just now I *did* hear it on WGBH
during what I think is the hourly NPR national feed. They apparently changed their mind some time in the past few hours. They gave a content warning before saying the word.
DC vs Boston
Perhaps they're leaving it up to the local affiliates to decide.
That makes sense
The FCC fines, if they were to come down, would be based on "contemporary community standards," which implies a certain amount of regional variance. What I want to see is WGBH letting through a "fahk this mothafahka in his left eah" from a riled-up man-in-the-street interview in Southie. Hey, it meets the standards of the city; no reason to censor it.
Seconded
They said it several times during the story, with a warning beforehand. FCC regulations notwithstanding, shit (or frankly, any of the other six words) shouldn't be a censored by the FCC from the public airwaves. Sure, they're rude, but government censorship here is overreach (especially on the many dubious grounds cited). There are no dirty words. Dirty people, yes, but words are just that: words.
If the f-bomb is incidental
If the f-bomb is incidental during news coverage, they're exempt - kind of.
In fact, that SHOULD have been the case with choice words during award ceremonies and Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction - but I think they still got heat for it because those were "entertainment" programs, and were partially scripted, while NPR is news and has no control over what fighter pilots say.
NPR standard for this case
As official water carriers I expect The Herald
to obtain comment from Geoff Diehl, Shauna O'Connell, Jim Lyons, Tim Cruz and Massachusetts Trump spokesman Ron Beaty Jr.
Re: Nothing...
Nothing from Lyons, O'Connell or Diehl on their Facebook pages.
I'm proud of what Trump said.
I'm proud of what Trump said. Who wants people here that don't contribute to our society? As a taxpayer, I'm glad we got a president who finally tells it like it really is!!
Oh, hi racist, I didn't see
Oh, hi racist, I didn't see you there. Perhaps you'd like to take a minute to shut the fuck up so we can get back to the business of ignoring you? Thanks.
You mean people like this?
Incidentally, this comes from Bill Kristol, the conservative pundit, with whom I probably disagree 98.8% of the time.
Kansas steals billions from
Kansas steals billions from blue states every year. Massachusetts pays all this tax money to the federal government and then red states like Kansas take it. But you don't call them welfare queens or people who "don't contribute" because Kansas is mainly white and you are racist.
Do you grow, prepare and cook 100% of your own food? No, you don't. That means you benefit from the contributions of immigrants, most of which are minorities, because they are the ones doing those things for you. You would starve to death without them. Hell, Trump has Haitians working on his golf courses. He is a hypocritical piece of garbage and so are you.
That must be why
you so proudly used your real name to make your shitheaded comment. C'mon, Donnie, put it all out in the open--let that flag fly! I'm sure you'll be free from repercussions, in this, the age of Trump.
Translation
Translation: We should judge applicants for citizenship based on what country they came from and not based on who they are or what their personal accomplishments are.
Did I get that about right?
And I counter
that President Shit hole does not contribute anything of value to our society.
I am not sure what you mean by we have a president "who finally tells it like it really is!" Almost everything he tweets/says, he refutes.
Other than being born in the
Other than being born in the United States, what make you so special?
Speaking of those that don't currently contribute, I
find irony in watching a Hatian American member of the BPD hit a white, maybe Irish, Italian, WASP, Jew, German God knows what zombie vampire heroin addict with multiple narcan and then dodging puke. Yeah. Pretty shithole of him.
Needs more Santorum
Needs more Santorum
We're the shithole country
We're the shithole country now.. #MAGA, right?
You meant...
... #MAWA. Right?
How "startled Congresspeople" should have responded:
"Shut the fuck up, Trump, you asshole. Matter of fact, get the fuck out of here."
This is how you deal with the bigoted loser in a baseball cap in the dive bar. This is how people of character should deal with this bigoted loser in a suit at the expensive wooden table.
Better that than the
Better that than the experienced Washington person I heard in an interview Friday morning. He was expressing his disgust: "Never has there been such crude and vulgar language from any President of the United States!"
Really? The indignation is nice, but the ignorance isn't.
To name two...
LBJ was plenty crude (on an equal-opportunity basis, so far as I know).
Wilson's mindset was, umm.... quaintly "old-school".