This is so repulsive I\’m sorry I read it after dinner.
CNN is running a story on Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal right now. Its headline is “Bobby Jindal: \’You mean I\’m not white?\'”
What does that convey to you? That Jindal, who is of Indian ancestry and relatively dark-skinned, is trying to pass as White? That he is ashamed of his skin color?
Well here are the first few paragraphs of the actual article. Please read them and see if the headline matches what is there:
Gov. Bobby Jindal on Monday slammed liberals for being “obsessed with race,” calling it “silly” to divide people by their race.
“I think the left is obsessed with race,” Jindal, a Louisiana Republican, said Monday at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. “The dumbest thing we can do is divide people by the color of their skin.”
The remarks came after a faux-controversy erupted when a liberal Louisiana blogger tweeted out a picture of a painting of Jindal, in which the Indian-American governor appears to be white.
The portrait, which is currently displayed in the Louisiana state capitol, is not Jindal\’s official portrait and was reportedly privately commissioned by a Jindal supporter.
When asked his thoughts on the painting, Jindal addressed the issue with a dose of humor:
“You mean I\’m not white?” Jindal joked Monday. “I think this whole thing is silly.”
As you can plainly see, all Bobby Jindal did was dismiss – disdain, actually – a “faux controversy” (amazing, isn\’t it, that this headline is used for an article which specifically debunks it?)
Obviously, therefore, the headline in no way communicates what Governor Jindal actually said.
But it is a way of convincing people who look no further than the headline, that Mr. Jindal said something 180 degrees different, and 100% more offensive, than what he actually did.
I don\’t know if that headline is the brainchild of Jeremy Diamond or someone else at CNN. But whoever put it up there is a disgrace.
If you want an operative color, it is not white. It is yellow. As in classic yellow journalism.
