Feud Alert! M.I.A. Blasts Anderson Cooper for Tamil "Terrorist" Label

Entertainer lashes out at CNN star for supposedly calling her a "Lady Tamil Tiger"; Cooper sets the record straight

By Josh Grossberg Mar 15, 2012 3:40 PMTags
Anderson Cooper, M.I.A., TwitterTwitter

M.I.A. likes to point the finger—anybody see her controversial performance at this year's Super Bowl?

Unfortunately for her, frustrated by the apparent lack of news coverage about an issue close to her heart—the slaughter of Tamil civilians in her homeland of Sri Lanka during the country's brutal civil war—the popster decided to pick on the wrong guy, Anderson Cooper.

The two got into a very tense Twitter exchange yesterday that prompted the CNN anchor to defend himself against M.I.A.'s allegations that he branded her a "terrorist."

"@AndersonCooper called me a terrorist for speaking out, and expressed support for the SLgov when this was happening," tweeted the "Born Free" singer, disappointed that Anderson failed to report on the atrocities being committed by the government.

She then pointed to Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, a U.K. documentary about the subject that she thought the Anderson Cooper 360° host ought to watch so "respected journos" don't "get it wrong."

That statement prompted a sharp rejoinder from Cooper.

"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," jibed the newsman.

"YOU CALLED ME A LADY TAMIL TIGER when i talked about tamil civilians dying, and u printed a retraction," M.I.A. responded, linking to a 360° blog post from January 2009 with the provocative headline "Lady Tamil Tiger gives pop culture a bang."

On a more serious note, Anderson added: "By the way, I defended your finger pointing at the superbowl, so check your facts. I've no idea what youre tweeting about."

The artist clarified the purported offense.

""In 2009 u linked to a articl [sic] that was written about me with false info. there was a rebuttal on ur 360 site," wrote M.I.A., whose real name is Maya Arulpragasam.

Keeping her honest, Cooper then called her out for confusing semantics that managed to make him sound like he was personally attacking her through the headline.

"You've gone from saying 'I wrote', 'I called you,' to saying my cnn show blog had a link to an article. Big difference," the journalist noted, adding "we link to many articles with different viewpoints, and we gave you an opportunity to respond."

Suffice to say, that explanation seemed to cool MIA's heels a bit.

"2 months later 1ce every tamil had been silenced including me, the SLGOV carried out the killing of 40, 000 civilians," she replied. "p.s. thank you for defending my finger. Please watch Channel 4."

Cooper tweeted his final word on the matter and the two subsequently made up.

"I can understand your frustration if someone wrote untrue things about you, and I'm glad you were able to respond," he tweeted, then concluded, "And the brutal war in SL has not gotten enough coverage in the US, and I know that very upsetting."

"im glad u understand but please watch #killingfields because this is what i was trying to say," MIA replied, putting the brief feud to bed.

Until next time, that is…