Episode 137: Thought-Terminating Enemy Epithets (Part I)
Added 2021-06-02 17:52:15 +0000 UTCHand-picked successor, firebrand, proxy — In Anglo-American media, there are certain Enemy Epithets that are reserved only for Official Enemy States of the good ol' US of A and their leaders, which are rarely, if ever, used to refer to the United States itself or its allies, despite these countries featuring many of the same qualities being described.
Over two years ago, in a two-part episode entitled "Laundering Imperial Violence Through Anodyne Foreign Policy-Speak" (Episodes 70 and 71), we explored the euphemistic way American media discusses manifestly violent or coercive US policy and military action. Words like “engagement”, “surgical strikes”, “muscular foreign policy”, “crippling sanctions” obscure the damage being unleashed by our military and economic extortion regime.
Just as pleasant sounding, sanitized foreign policy speak masks the violence of US empire, highly loaded pejorative labels are used to describe otherwise banal doings of government or are employed selectively to make enemies seem uniquely sinister, while American allies who exhibit similar features are given a far more pleasant descriptor.
This and next week, we're going to lay out the Top 10 Enemies Epithets — derisive descriptors that are inconsistently applied to smear enemies without any symmetrical usage stateside, designed to conjure up nasty images of despotism and oppression, often pandering to racialized and Oriental prejudice and, above all, asking people to shut off our brains and have the label do the thinking for them.
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Guests
Janine Jackson is Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting’s Program Director, and the Producer and host of FAIR’s syndicated weekly radio show CounterSpin.
Jim Naureckas is the editor of FAIR.org and, since 1990, has edited Extra!, FAIR’s monthly magazine.
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Show Notes
Media’s Top Meaning for ‘Proxy’ Is ‘Iranian Ally’
Gregory Shupak | April 21, 2021 | FAIR
Trump’s Bigotry Reminds US Media of Anywhere but Home
Adam Johnson | July 29, 2016 | FAIR
Latin America’s Former Presidents Have Way Too Much Power
Javier Corrales | April 14, 2021 | The New York Times
By inciting Capitol mob, Trump pushes U.S. closer to a banana republic
Ako Ufodike | January 8, 2021 | The Conversation
Christopher Walker and Jessica Ludwig | May 12, 2021 | Foreign Affairs
Jonathan Tepperman | March 5, 2013 | The New York Times
Carol Pires | November 12, 2019 | The New York Times
Ever the Firebrand, Ahmadinejad Seems to Want to Mount a Comeback in Iran
Arthur White | August 4, 2015 | VICE
Hugo Chávez still rockin' the cult of personality, 2 years after his 'transition to immortality'
Kevin Gray | March 7, 2015 | Splinter News
Students In India Held A Massive Celebration to Honor Bill Gates On His Birthday
Lisa Eadicicco | October 28, 2015 | TIME
Hurting, Hanging, Suffocating & Starving: The Inhumanity of Iran Threat Rhetoric
Nima Shirazi | March 2, 2012 | Wide Asleep In America
Covering Islam: How The Media and the Experts Determine How We See The Rest of the World
Edward W. Said | 1981 | Vintage Books
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Transcript
For a full transcript of this episode, go here.
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Comments
one of my favorite episodes, I listened to it on a walk around my neighborhood and can remember it so well lol
natfos 💌
2022-03-06 22:13:41 +0000 UTCYou guys do the best listicles. Loved this.
2021-06-05 18:16:21 +0000 UTCGreat episode. Love listicles. Especially a “hand picked” one.
John
2021-06-04 20:05:58 +0000 UTCAwesome episode. Love anytime JJ is a guest!
2021-06-04 00:22:06 +0000 UTCThis ep is a banger.
2021-06-03 18:14:55 +0000 UTCJoshua Keating at Slate used to do an occasional piece where he'd satirise this sort of framing: https://slate.com/tag/if-it-happened-there
Coupcumber
2021-06-03 10:16:57 +0000 UTCSpeaking of writing books, Adam you've said on Twitter you were writing a book yourself. What's the latest on that?
Tom Kelly
2021-06-02 18:17:15 +0000 UTCIs this the spiritual successor to those shows?
Major Major
2021-06-02 18:03:21 +0000 UTC
