M.I.A lashes out at CNN anchor Anderson Cooper
British singer M.I.A launched a Twitter rant at U.S. news anchor Anderson Cooper earlier today, claiming he called her a terrorist.
The star, who made headlines for her one-fingered salute at the Super Bowl earlier this year, lashed out after finding an article on Cooper’s blog.
She said the offending piece, from 2009, had called her a ‘Lady Tamil Tiger’.
M.I.A wrote: ‘@AndersonCooper called me a terrorist for speaking out, and expressed support for the SLgov when this was happening.’
She added: ‘Someone should make @AndersonCooper watch it / film it and show the world what happens when respected journos get it wrong #killingfields.’
The singer, who is of Sri Lankan descent, was speaking about a documentary called The Killing Fields, which follows the 2009 assault on the Tamil Tigers by the Sri Lankan army.
A confused Anderson Tweeted in reply: ‘What are you talking about?… @miauniverse, you are mistaken. I never called you a terrorist. I don’t even know who you are other than the lady who sang at superbowl….
‘@miauniverse. by the way, I defended your finger pointing at the superbowl, so check your facts. I’ve no idea what youre tweeting about.’
M.I.A then explained: ‘@andersoncooper YOU CALLED ME A LADY TAMIL TIGER when i talked about tamil civilians dying, and u printed a retraction. (sic)’
She added a link to an Anderson Cooper 360ยบ blog, which was not actually written by Anderson.
The singer continued: ‘@andersoncooper in 2009 u linked to a articl that was written about me with false info. there was a rebuttal on ur 360 site.’
Adding: ‘@andersoncooper 2 months later 1ce every tamil had been silenced including me, the SLGOV carried out the killing of 40, 000 civilians.’
Anderson then took to preventing the Twitter war from going any further with one last post.
He defused the situation by writing: ‘@miauniverse you’ve gone from saying “I wrote”, “I called you,” to saying my cnn show blog had a link to an article. Big difference.’
‘We link to many articles with different viewpoints, and we gave you an opportunity to respond. I can understand your frustration if someone wrote untrue things about you, and I’m glad you were able to respond. … and the brutal war in SL has not gotten enough coverage in the US, and I know that very upsetting.’
Which led M.I.A to calm down and finally write back: ‘@andersoncooper p.s thank you for defending my finger , please watch Channel4 #killingfields by @jonsnowC4. im glad u understand but please watch #killingfields because this is what i was trying to say.’