Coverage in the Navy Times

I was surprised Thursday to receive a call from Andrew Scutro, a reporter from the Navy Times in Norfolk, Virginia, about the imminent reading of The Filipino Monkey.

Andrew had covered the story back in January about the legendary heckling out in the Straits of Hormuz; and how such heckling may have played a part in an incident many compared to a latter-day Gulf of Tonkin.

Andrew and I approached the same story from very different takes, but we both had a lot to say about about journalism, comedy, politics, and the intersection of all three. I reprint the lead text from the article here - follow the link for the whole story:

Strait of Hormuz incident inspires playwright

By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Jul 19, 2008 7:23:40 EDT

NORFOLK, Va. — Like the rest of the world, Ignacio Zulueta watched the Jan. 6 incident in the Strait of Hormuz unfold as three U.S. warships were harassed by Iranian military speedboats. But what really affected him was what happened afterward.

On Jan. 8, the Pentagon released a video of the confrontation that also contained a maritime radio recording from an unknown source threatening the warships. At the end of the footage, the screen goes black, and the ominous words “I am coming to you” can be heard.

In reporting the story then, Navy Times contacted several naval experts with experience in the Persian Gulf who said the voice was probably one of the many radio hecklers in the region, collectively referred to by the racially insensitive handle “The Filipino Monkey.”

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The media outcry, and the way they and others handled the story of the radio heckler, got Zulueta’s attention.

A 32-year-old writer, Zulueta lived in the Philippines until he was 9 and became a U.S. citizen last year.

Lately, the San Francisco-area resident has been working with a group called PlayGround, in which new writers create short 10-page plays on a particular topic. When the Hormuz incident made the news, Zulueta knew right away he had a subject.

He called his play “The Filipino Monkey: A Sound Bite with Teeth.”

“The play is about the coverage of the incident, not so much the incident itself,” Ignacio said. “It’s about what the incident says about us.”


For the full story, click here to link through to the Navy Times Online.