NOT SURPRISED: A THREAD (cc: the entire media industry but esp the enablers @nytimes )
RCMP arrests ‘Abu Huzayfah’ for allegedly faking his past with ISIS | http://Globalnews.ca  https://globalnews.ca/news/7350363/rcmp-arrests-abu-huzayfah-for-faking-past/

because i belong to an industry that is remarkably not self-reflective, i often have to assign my students in int'l reporting & cross cultural journalism criticisms from other disciplines -ie literature, film, art et al -- that also take on representations of other peoples

after an entire semester in intro to int'l reporting, after which we break down US nationalism & how it hands Americans a ready made language (made by the CIA in collusion w/US universities/think tanks etc ever since post WW2 era) w/which to rationalize US policy abroad and

how that acts on US foreign corespondents as Americans first & then second, as journalists and how our industry then perpetuates the racist narratives that both enable apocalyptic US policy abroad (while often also winning awards , praise, and editor enabled immunity)

THEN, i finally assign Edward Said & other cultural critics. This puts me in the minority, I know.Others assign the kind of aforementioned prize winning work that tells how what happens in Palestine, Iraq, Syria et al is abt Islam. Centuries old theology has determined today

They tell you you have to understand Ali, the Koran and a gazillion other things to understand why Palestinians can't love being occupied; why Iraqis can't build a viable state after the world's only superpower decimates it; why French men hate a racist "satirical" magazine etc

Said instead tells my students what one needs to gain knowledge abt others is common sense and critical assessment which is available to anyone, he says. But apparently not to NYT editors & reporters so blinded by racist narratives that they ignore what was obv to many

this industry is so unable to be self-reflective that the reporter behind the Caliphate & several stories from the last several years where she has recounted w/breathless aroused prose that Arabic was spoken, that Muslim verses were invoked, that traditional clothing was worn etc

says w/apparently no self awareness in response to the arrest: "“His social media alone in an American setting would likely be enough for a material support of terrorism charge,” Rukmini Callimachi wrote."
LET ME SPELL THIS OUT FOR YOU:

the utter embrace of Islamophobia paired with utter eschewing of COMMON SENSE that allows the material support law is also what allows for the sort of "journalism" that has been peddled here. MEANWHILE

we have actual white supremacists running for office, or occupying the WH, suppressing findings from their own agencies abt that kind of domestic terrorism

i hate that i have to spend so much time responding to work that has been PATENTLY problematic from its start. & i'm talking about when it first got on my radar over 5 yrs ago.Singularly obsessed people unable to be self aware or even remotely critically minded are one thing.BUT

an entire paper/masthead repeatedly standing behind them, enabling them.... not gonna age well. FIN