I was watching BBC WORLD NEWS this morning in my satellite-TV. The "news-reader"/anchor was discussing the Saddam trial with the BBC's chief foreign correspondant JOHN SIMPSON; at issue, the fact that Saddam would be absent from proceeding today (apparently because he's boycotting them as protest, as he had threatened yesterday). The anchor posed a question in a way which reveals ENORMOUS PRO-SADDAM BIAS: He asked how the trial could go forward if the PROTAGONIST wasn't there. The use of this word reveals that he sees Saddam as the HERO of the story.
In fact, the brave judges and prosecutors and long-suffering people of Iraq are the protagonists. Saddam is the evil antagonist at long last getting his just desserts.
The BBC is scum. More HERE and HERE.
In fact, the brave judges and prosecutors and long-suffering people of Iraq are the protagonists. Saddam is the evil antagonist at long last getting his just desserts.
The BBC is scum. More HERE and HERE.
4 comments:
Protagonist: A leading or principal figure.
Not necessarily a 'hero'.
I tend to ignore the BBC just like I ignore PBS.
Liberty Slutzski, Thank you for pointing that out.
Repliapundit, I think you undermine the british DIolect, remember their English is vastly different from Our English.
In literary tems liberty is correct, the protaganist isn't neccessarly the hero, just the main focus, the antagonist is anything that works agianst it.
Oh, and on another note, What happened to my comment on "OJ and Binloden?"
It took me quite a long time to type that up, I'd appreciate it if you honored my efforts and left it up there, regardless if you agree with it or not. I'd prefer it if instead of deleating comments you'd just respond to them, I find the debate much more stimulating and less frustrating that way.
SO SORRY SLUTSKI BUT I AM ACCURATE AS TO CONTEMPORARY USAGE.
(which might not be what the Greeks meant, but so what - IT'S HOW THE DAMN WORD IS USED TODAY!)
http://www.answers.com/topic/protagonist
"USAGE NOTE:
The protagonist of a Greek drama was its leading actor; therefore, there could be only one in a play.
The question for speakers of modern English is whether a drama can have more than one protagonist.
When members of the Usage Panel were asked “How many protagonists are there in Othello?” the great majority answered “One” and offered substitutes such as antagonist, villain, principal, and deuteragonist to describe Desdemona and Iago.
Nevertheless, the word has been used in the plural to mean “important actors” or “principal characters” since at least 1671 when John Dryden wrote “Tis charg'd upon me that I make debauch'd persons … my protagonists, or the chief persons of the drama.”
Some writers may prefer to confine their use of protagonist to refer to a single actor or chief participant, but it is pointless to insist that the broader use is wrong.
The use of protagonist to refer to a proponent has become common only in the 20th century and may have been influenced by a misconception that the first syllable of the word represents the prefix pro–, “favoring.”
In sentences such as He was an early protagonist of nuclear power, this use is likely to strike many readers as an error and can usually be replaced by advocate or proponent."
ALSO:
the following words are USED as SYNONYMS:
"supporter, protagonist, champion, admirer, booster, friend"
http://www.answers.com/topic/supporter-protagonist-champion-admirer-booster-friend
ALL are positive.
Which is how the BBC newsreader meant it - whether he intended to or not.
According to the way English is USED today - 2005 - Saddam is the VILLAIN, not the PROTAGONIST.
You are WROING; I am right.
Buh-byee.
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