In a story sure to shock one Louis la Vache as much as it did I, the front page of today’s Advocate – my home town’s journal of record – shook me to my very core, and prompted me to muse on it.
First, the facts as we know them:
So why then, I must ask, this headline?
“Man hurt?!?” FIVE innocent cows killed, and they choose to run with “man hurt”?
Unfortunately this is merely the latest in a long line of anti-bovine reportage. It is distressing that the media are not aware of their own biases, and how, constantly, their framing of stories reveal an innate prejudice against cows.
I will not even go into another disturbing facet of the story, other than to say that this quote from the story is equally troubling:
First, the facts as we know them:
- A dark and stormy night.
- An unlit road out in the country.
- A young man in a high powered vehicle.
- Thirty cows innocent of any crime.
- A CRASH!
So why then, I must ask, this headline?
"Man hurt as car hits cows"
“Man hurt?!?” FIVE innocent cows killed, and they choose to run with “man hurt”?
Unfortunately this is merely the latest in a long line of anti-bovine reportage. It is distressing that the media are not aware of their own biases, and how, constantly, their framing of stories reveal an innate prejudice against cows.
When asked for comment, this cow said, “Yeah, the marginalisation of cows is disturbing”.
I will not even go into another disturbing facet of the story, other than to say that this quote from the story is equally troubling:
“Sgt Lee-Anne Walters, of Smithton police, said yesterday about 30 black cows [my emphasis] had wandered onto the road before the crash.”What, pray tell, has the race of the cows got to do with it?
Comments
People should be psychic so when invisible cows clog up the road, they know about it@!
My aunt breeds banded galloways (black with white stripe around their tums), does this make them half-caste cows?
I'm reasonably certain that we aren't supposed to say half-caste any more either.
I pretty sure that now we say "cows of a culturally, ethnically, religeously and geographically diverse background".
He chose to laugh it off.