Rachael Ray: A jihadist sympathizer?
Posted: Friday, May 30, 2008
There’s a lot you could say about ever-present Food Network host Rachael Ray.
You could say she isn’t a very good cook. Or that she sells her show with sex appeal rather than culinary skill. You could say you find her perkiness annoying.
But calling her a jihadist apologist because of a scarf she wore for a photo shoot is ridiculous.
Yet that’s essentially the claim made by conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, among others.
Ray wore a black-and-white scarf (the company called it paisley) in an online advertisement for Dunkin’ Donuts’ iced coffee. In a column last week, Malkin complained that the scarf looked like a kaffiyeh, a traditional Arab headdress, which "has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad."
The apparel, she wrote, "... has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not-so-ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities and left-wing icons."
Normally, we’d let something this intellectually challenged pass. But then Dunkin’ Donuts went out and pulled the advertisement last weekend.
There are so many things wrong-headed about Malkin’s diatribe on this subject that we don’t know where to begin in debunking it. But we can say this: We find it interesting that someone who often bemoans political correctness would seize on such a silly issue.
We're also disappointed the company would respond to Malkin and fringe critics from online blogs. Malkin and those blog critics do not - at least we hope -- speak for rational Americans on this issue.
For us, what it comes down to is this: Sometimes a scarf is just a scarf. Nothing more, nothing less.
You could say she isn’t a very good cook. Or that she sells her show with sex appeal rather than culinary skill. You could say you find her perkiness annoying.
But calling her a jihadist apologist because of a scarf she wore for a photo shoot is ridiculous.
Yet that’s essentially the claim made by conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, among others.
Ray wore a black-and-white scarf (the company called it paisley) in an online advertisement for Dunkin’ Donuts’ iced coffee. In a column last week, Malkin complained that the scarf looked like a kaffiyeh, a traditional Arab headdress, which "has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad."
The apparel, she wrote, "... has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not-so-ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities and left-wing icons."
Normally, we’d let something this intellectually challenged pass. But then Dunkin’ Donuts went out and pulled the advertisement last weekend.
There are so many things wrong-headed about Malkin’s diatribe on this subject that we don’t know where to begin in debunking it. But we can say this: We find it interesting that someone who often bemoans political correctness would seize on such a silly issue.
We're also disappointed the company would respond to Malkin and fringe critics from online blogs. Malkin and those blog critics do not - at least we hope -- speak for rational Americans on this issue.
For us, what it comes down to is this: Sometimes a scarf is just a scarf. Nothing more, nothing less.
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CHERRI wrote on May 31, 2008 11:07 AM:
Josey wrote on May 31, 2008 10:54 AM:
Amy of the Lakes wrote on May 30, 2008 7:35 AM:
Having said that -- while I love her magazine with its 30 minute meals and shopping lists to go with the recipes -- I do not watch the show that much because of the excessive perkiness and star interviews unrelated to cooking. "
Keith wrote on May 30, 2008 6:57 AM: