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"...even the wicked get worse than they deserve." - Willa Cather, One of Ours

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

Are there any editors out there?

Iraq the Model
About a month ago, I was watching Al-Iraqyia TV. They were hosting a spokesman of the coalition and the secretary of the Muslim Sunni Cleric Council Harith Muthanna Al-Dhari. They were talking about the revolt in Falujah. That guy was an extremely anti-American fanatic cleric and he didn’t even try to hide his feelings...

[...]

[reporter]-Is it true that Fallujah harbor most of the ex-Baathists and Saddam followers and that these are the bulk of the so-called resistance?

[Al-Dhari]-No, that’s absolutely not true. We were always against Saddam and his regime.

-Come on Saddam named Al-Anbar as one of the "white governorate"” because its people didn’t take part in the uprising in 1991, and you have had many pro-Saddam demonstrations since the 9th of April there!

-Now that's not true and let me tell you something you may not know. First there were only two demonstration supporting Saddam after he was caught and that’s how they happened: Soon after Saddam was captured, a reporter from one of the Arab satellite channels, and I don't want to mention its name, came downtown, gathered a bunch of teenagers, handed each one of them $20US and gave them some pictures of Saddam. He then asked them to shout and dance and made a great report out of it. The same thing happened again in exactly the same manner!...
A US Army intelligence report said the same thing a few weeks ago.

I suspect the guilty party here is the local Al-Jazeera reporter. The problem with Al-Jazeera is editorial control. Specifically, the lack thereof. While this kind of behavior would never be approved by HQ, the local reporters tend to be given way to much latitude to put completely made-up stories on the air, and the editors in Qatar are suspiciously uninquisitive in these matters.

Ratings over truth. This is a disease that has weakened much of the world's media, it not just Arab media that is to blame.

Of course, I am faultless when it comes to editorial politcy! Bwahahahahah...
Posted by: Zayphar / 6/15/2004 01:09:00 PM
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