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Who you calling a Bigot? Bigot.

By: Santosh :+: Under: Blogs, Brown in America, Crime, Culture, Media Watch, Opinion, Racism
On: ⋅ April 18, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment
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For those of you who have not had a chance to update yourself on the blogosphere, MSNBC/ Newsweek has an article on Koreans bracing themselves for a backlash.

While researching the article, the authors decided to use a comment from Sepia Mutiny to illustrate their lede’s point about nasty bigots in the blogosphere. I would not be writing this post if not for the sense of malice I felt as I read the first paragraph of that article.

but to the bigots in the blogosphere it was his origins in Korea that mattered most. “Koreans are the most hotheaded and macho of East Asians,” wrote one unnamed commentator on the Sepia Mutiny blog. “They are also sick and tired of losing their Korean girlfriends to white men with an Asian fetish.”

Sepia Mutiny(SM) instantly posted their reaction.

I am angered by two things about the MSNBC/Newsweek article.

1) MSNBC could have used the comment and not mentioned SM. If they were intent on using it and they had any integrity whatsoever, they would have added that the racist and stereotypical comment upset several of SM commenters who were not even Korean, each of whom excoriated the original commenter for buying in to stereotypes.

2) I expected this from a tabloid, not from MSNBC/Newsweek. Way to keep up your quality.

When Uber Desi was implicated by a few tabloids as the shady organizer of a coordinated campaign to get call centers to support Sanjaya Malakar, we were unhappy, but we understood that these were tabloids and twisting words was a part of the game they play. Later when those tabloids were quoted by other credible blogs, we had to react. If MSNBC were a tabloid, no one should or would care. But they are not. And that is why this is so disturbing.

When a regular reader of Sepia Mutiny named Maurice Reeves contacted the author about the mistake she had made, her reaction was unapologetic.

Dear Mr. Reeves,

I appreciate your note. Our intention was not to chastise Sepia Mutiny in any way—many blogs have been receiving derogatory comments, and Sepia is just one example. I think that anyone who visits the site will quickly find out what you speak of: that it’s an open forum for commentary, and with that comes the possibility of potentially-hateful comments. We would hope that our readers who are concerned about this site check it out and find that out for themselves. Unfortunately, unless we’ve introduced factual errors into a piece we do not print retractions, and we stand by this piece. I appreciate your input and interest and will keep it in mind as we move forward in our coverage.

Respectfully,
Jessica Bennett

If SM was “just one example”, why is no other blog or comment quoted in the article?

Another interesting point is that a random set of words from the original comment when typed in Google does not bring up SM in its results. How on earth did Newsweek’s researchers discover such an anomalous bit of ignorance amid a thread of over 200 comments?

Were the authors lurking, looking to destroy the credibility of a well established blog?

I for one think so.

The mainstream press has resented and bitterly lashed out at the blogosphere ever since it realized how its very existence was threatened by this revolutionary movement. Was some intern or researcher exacting a petty bit of revenge for that threat? I can’t believe that someone who would be employed at such a well-known network or magazine didn’t scroll down a few inches and see that what they were cherry-picking was disingenuous. I think that the person who saw the “money quote”, as Anna termed it, smugly threw integrity to the wind and essentially sent us a message that is often conveyed with one’s middle finger.

What happened at SM could happen to any regular blogger, it is only a matter of time before it happens to another one of us. The “immediate solution” that everyone thinks of is better comment moderation, but most of us have a day job. So what option does that leave us?

I am annoyed by the fact that the MSM can randomly pick and choose parts of our blogs’ content to prove their point, with no repercussions for inaccuracy. In trying to quote someone who fit their need for sensationalism, they carelessly affected the efforts of a dedicated team of bloggers who have spent years trying to combat the exact ignorance they are now being unjustly associated with.

I urge you to think about the consequences of this seemingly minor incident. You might not be a reader of SM, you might even hate SM, but as bloggers we need to be aware of the potential fallout from this issue. We should consider how we might address this. Today it was Sepia Mutiny, tomorrow it could be me or you. All of our hard work and effort would go to waste in a second and I for one don’t care to give MSM the pleasure of destroying it. Or us.

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