On The Road In The Kingdom Of Fear

a brief update on fascism, the USA and a good deed being done by a comrade

Now, as I am sure you will be aware there is talk that Mr Blair dissuaded Mr Bush from bombing al jazeera. Bar the idiotic hypocrisy of this issue (building a democratic Iraq with a free press, then only to want to blow up a slightly critical news organisation in Qatar), the issue of whether al jazeera is anti-American, or pro-the resistance should also be debated. From what I have read al jazeera is a relatively liberal and impartial news company that gives its stories from an Arab perspective. Obviously, with the majority of the Arab world being up in arms over Bush’s policies, this will be reflected in their news coverage. They aren’t militants, as their staffers blog will show.

Indeed, Sir David Frost (remember breakfast with frost on Sundays?) is now their Washington correspondent and a fair proportion of their staff are ex-BBC world service. Another quality check of the impartiality of a news organisation is who it pisses off. The bbc is accused of being pro-Israeli by some liberals, and pro-Palestine by conservatives. Seems to me like its doing a pretty good job then. Regards, al jazeera, as this news item would suggest the same can apply to them. Al jazzera is accused of being 'Israel Controlled' by extremists on t’other side of the argument. When compared to some of the other stuff in the Arab media… like this from Saudi.. how can Bush still view them as allies while making such a big deal about al jazeera.

As one would expect, the dude was in wonderful form when discussing the issue of journalistic freedom in Iraq.

"The prostitute journalist is a familiar and well-understood figure in the Middle East, and Saddam Hussein's regime made lavish use of the buyability of the regional press. Now we, too, have hired that clapped-out old floozy, Miss Rosie Scenario, and sent her whoring through the streets. If there was one single thing that gave a certain grandeur to the change of regime in Baghdad, it was the reopening of the free press (with the Communist Party's paper the first one back on the streets just after the statue fell) and the profusion of satellite dishes, radio stations, and TV programs. There were some crass exceptions—Paul Bremer's decision to close Muqtada Sadr's paper being one of the stupidest and most calamitous decisions—but in general it was something to be proud of. Now any fool is entitled to say that a free Iraqi paper is a mouthpiece, and any killer is licensed to allege that a free Iraqi reporter is a mercenary. A fine day's work. Someone should be fired for it."

posted by Alexander Try @ 4:40 am