Letter to Channel 4 Dispatches
I don't normally cut and paste stuff verbatim onto my blog, but I felt strongly that this letter written to Channel 4 deserves a wider airing. I think it brings out the subtext of the programme and what lay beneath it's seemingly self-righteous tone. The more I reflected on the programme, the more cross I felt. It was yet another example of how maligning Muslims is the newest bloodsport in this country. And no, that's not hyperbolae.
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Dear Sir
I am greatly dismayed and saddened at the way your programme deliberately misportrayed Islam and muslims, casting them wholesale as intolerant and as the 'other'. The documentary does a great injustice to the reputation of your programme and television channel as it does not - despite attempts to the contrary - provide dispassionate and objectively coherent analysis. It was clearly designed to speak to an agenda to malign the faith and its adherents.
A very large proporation of the examples used to support the programme's assertions were decontextualised - similar assertions could easily be made by such analyses of other mainstream monotheistic faiths.
For example (and as you should have known), commentary about homosexuals - even if you disagree with it- of the same sort is found in Christianity and Judaism. The Pope does not agree with homosexuality, yet he is not targetted for journalistic assassination. There are also extremists in Judaism, Christianity and other religions, and it would be possible to construct the same programme about any religion if that were the intent. There has never been similar portrayal of Irish Catholics on the basis of IRA terrorism, or Orthodox Judaism despite it's many similarities in creed to Islam. Yet common decency, common sense and restraint is afforded to other belief systems in a way which is not equitably applied to Islam. Sweeping generalisation is not an ingredient befitting a quality dispatch.
Your actions do not accurately or responsibly add to societal debate / discourse, but are in fact wrecklessly irresponsible and inflammatory. The implication that mainstream Islam and its followers are essentially evil / outside the pale and so forth would be laughable if it were not also at the same time so deeply wrong and damaging. The subtext that all muslims are as you have chosen to represent them is also statistically highly unlikely and paranoid - over 1 billion people?
You should really offer a sincere apology for the hatchet job that your aired programme was, and resolve to be objective, balanced, constructive and dignified to try and regain your credibility.even if your viewing figures may initially suffer. Quality will always prevail over a cheap thrill. Unless of course sensationalism is your driving principle and you aim to emulate the tabloid press.
Please convey this complaint to your wider organisation
Deeply disappointed.
Yours
*******************************************
Dear Sir
I am greatly dismayed and saddened at the way your programme deliberately misportrayed Islam and muslims, casting them wholesale as intolerant and as the 'other'. The documentary does a great injustice to the reputation of your programme and television channel as it does not - despite attempts to the contrary - provide dispassionate and objectively coherent analysis. It was clearly designed to speak to an agenda to malign the faith and its adherents.
A very large proporation of the examples used to support the programme's assertions were decontextualised - similar assertions could easily be made by such analyses of other mainstream monotheistic faiths.
For example (and as you should have known), commentary about homosexuals - even if you disagree with it- of the same sort is found in Christianity and Judaism. The Pope does not agree with homosexuality, yet he is not targetted for journalistic assassination. There are also extremists in Judaism, Christianity and other religions, and it would be possible to construct the same programme about any religion if that were the intent. There has never been similar portrayal of Irish Catholics on the basis of IRA terrorism, or Orthodox Judaism despite it's many similarities in creed to Islam. Yet common decency, common sense and restraint is afforded to other belief systems in a way which is not equitably applied to Islam. Sweeping generalisation is not an ingredient befitting a quality dispatch.
Your actions do not accurately or responsibly add to societal debate / discourse, but are in fact wrecklessly irresponsible and inflammatory. The implication that mainstream Islam and its followers are essentially evil / outside the pale and so forth would be laughable if it were not also at the same time so deeply wrong and damaging. The subtext that all muslims are as you have chosen to represent them is also statistically highly unlikely and paranoid - over 1 billion people?
You should really offer a sincere apology for the hatchet job that your aired programme was, and resolve to be objective, balanced, constructive and dignified to try and regain your credibility.even if your viewing figures may initially suffer. Quality will always prevail over a cheap thrill. Unless of course sensationalism is your driving principle and you aim to emulate the tabloid press.
Please convey this complaint to your wider organisation
Deeply disappointed.
Yours
Labels: Channel 4, dispatches, Islam, Muslim
posted by Shelina Zahra Janmohamed at 22:41
4 Comments:
Will you post their reply if they send you one? You might also pass on your correspondence to media lens.
If a reply is forthcoming I will post it up.
Is medialens just a place to post up info or will they do something with it?
Mostly what they do is publish "media alerts" when some news organisation or other is doing something like what you described in your letter. A fair number of people receive the media alerts and will often take the "suggested action" (usually writing to the news organisation in question). I don't know how they decide what to do in their media alerts but if you sent them your letter and they did one based on it you might find a lot of people writing similar letters to C4 and it might even have some effect. I've no idea how successful they are generally, but they do at least usually get a few replies.
Shelina, I don't know if you are old enough to recall, but the newspapers in the UK demonised and scapegoated Irish people in the UK during the IRA campaigns. The Catholic/IRA/Republician vs Loyalist/Protestant/Orange was always implicity in any media reports of Northern Ireland, and often very explicit. As an Irish woman who lived through this, I am disappointed in your observation.
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