Posted by
Mike Silverman on Saturday, May 07, 2011 11:02:37 AM
I find this fascinating.
Usama versus Osama. Some news agencies report the ( now deceased ) terrorist's first name as "Osama" bin Laden, while a few... including Fox News, report his first name as "Usama".
Why?
It's fairly obvious why, of course. "Osama" is a little too uncomfortably close to "Obama" ( our current President's last name ) in sound and perhaps a little too easy to misstep with, in speaking or reporting on the news. But, is this a good thing? Should we accept changing the spelling and pronounciation of anything or anyone's name , simply because of some political deference to the President?
I did a little research on Usama versus Osama and I focused on reports coming from the Fox News agency. I found that Fox News has retroactively changed their printed online reports , altering reports that had been using the name Osama, and changing to Usama. In fact this appears to have been done recently.
Here's an interesting example;
The New York Post, on their web site, recently linked one of their pages to a news story from Fox News.
On the New York Post news web site..., there a small extract from the Fox News report..., essentally allowing visitors to the New York Post site to see part of the story linked-to from Fox News.
On the New York Post site, the report starts this way...;
" Osama bin Laden appeared to be "reaching for a weapon" before he was shot by the U.S. team raiding his compound in Pakistan, a senior U.S. official told Fox News. "
That's right. The first name of the Terrorist , as seen on the New York Post web site is "Osama". Now, keep in mind they are "linking" to the story that actually appears on the Fox News web site.
...BUT...
If you then were to select the link , provided on the New York Post web site..., to take you to the "full" news story on the Fox News web site..., you will magically see the name "Osama" transform iteslf into the name "Usama". Abracadabra!!
Obviously there is an editing platform in use , probably very recently and probably automatic, that changes the name Osama to Usama.
Is this a good thing? Personally, I don't care very much except that it smacks of political influence on the news. I can only speculate, but one of two things probably happened. Either reporters , on their own, were making too many flubs ..., reporting the name Osama, as Obama..., or someone from the Obama administration requested that the name of the terrorist be altered in reports in order to more cleanly disambiguate the terrorist from the President.
You can see the humorous transformation of Osama to Usama for yourself by following the link below. It will take you to the New York Post web site where the story has the name Osama, and then you can click the link at the bottom of the story to see Osama change to Usama.
- Mike Silverman, Milford MA