MIA tweets on Channel-4, creates wide war-crimes publicity

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 March 2012, 03:49 GMT]
Maya Arulpragasam (popularly known as MIA), the Jaffna born music phenom, created unexpected world-wide publicity for the Channel-4's recently released documentary on Sri Lanka's war-crimes when she entered a tweet debate with CNN's Anderson Cooper when she tweeted her followers suggesting "they also tune in," and then singled out Cooper, tweeting, "someone should make @andersoncooper watch it / film it and show the world what happens when respected journos get it wrong #killingfields." In her following tweet, she said that Cooper had called her "a terrorist for speaking out."

Huffington Post which covered the "lively debate," said, "MIA was seemingly referring to a 2009 incident when the blog associated with Anderson Cooper's CNN show linked to an article published in the Charleston Mercury News titled, "Lady Tamil Tiger Gives Pop Culture A Bang." The article discussed MIA's hit record, "Paper Planes," and the work of her father who is widely known as a Tamil activist. The article includes the line, "To some, M.I.A. is a peaceful revolutionary artist who has shed light on a desperate situation in Sri Lanka. To others she is a LTTE propagandist rousting international support for a terrorist organization.""

Huffington Post said of the "debate" that the "two seemed to make up in the end, when Cooper said he understood MIA's frustrations that the Sri Lankan war that has not gotten enough coverage in the U.S. Cooper also told MIA to "check her facts" since he also defended her finger pointing at the Super Bowl.

"@andersoncooper p.s thank you for defending my finger , please watch Channel4 #killingfields by @jonsnowC4," MIA responded.

Chronology:

17.03.12  MIA tweets on Channel-4, creates wide war-crimes p..

13.07.10  MIA's album-release grabs US headlines

18.06.10  MIA: I speak for my people

04.06.10  NYT corrects journalistic "error" on MIA article

02.05.10  MIA spreads genocide message through video, album

08.06.09  ‘Stop-Genocide’ candidate secures record result, b..

05.06.09  300,000 Tamils in concentration camps - MIA

03.06.09  MIA's endorsement expected to boost Jananayagam's ..

31.05.09  Potent Tamil voice for European Parliament

15.05.09  British Tamil contests seat for European Parliamen..

External Links:

Yahoo:		Anderson Cooper and M.I.A. Get in Heated Twitter Feud
HuffingtonP:		Anderson Cooper, MIA Have Lively Debate About Sri Lanka Over Twitter