Whether American or British journalism is “better” is a complex and probably unanswerable question that would require many thousands of words to address exhaustively. Gideon Rachman, chief foreign affairs writer of the Financial Times has a crack at it in a 900-word column July 15 (“American journalism, still a model”), and doesn't much like the […]
Perhaps this is no more than proof of the old adage that journalism is a career for young people, who necessarily have less in their memory banks than their elders. In a dispatch July 16 (“Crises force Bush to embrace intervention“), the Financial Times quoted the following words as told to the Washington newspaper Politico […]
Al-Jazeera.net is conducting an interesting survey. In light of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates’ recent decision to name ambassadors to Iraq, the network's website is asking for feedback from its viewers on the issue. While sending ambassadors to a fellow Arab nation may not seem controversial at first, the questions being asked in the […]
I came across a video produced by Al-Qaeda in Iraq's al-Furqan media group this weekend. It was posted earlier this week in a jihadist internet forum, but is now also available on YouTube. The video is the third part of a series entitled, “The Knights of Martyrdom”. While I haven't seen part 2, I have […]
A report in yesterday's As-Safir covered a recent press conference given by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus. According to the pro-opposition Lebanese daily, al-Assad voiced that the US's role in any future peace deal with Israel is essential, and is one that cannot be matched by any European country. He stated that this is […]
In a report July 8, the Washington Post took on the easy target of EU food regulations, ridiculing rules such those defining the bend in Class 1 cucumbers, the size of onions, and the ripeness of peaches. Such seemingly absurd regulations are frequently derided in the media, especially in Britain, but supported by a majority […]
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/65lk-1JqxFA” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Darfur is a nightmare. The western area of Sudan, Africa, which is the size of France, is home to about six million people. As many as 200,000 people have been killed and another 2.5 million displaced. That's where the documentary “Darfur Now” begins. Director Ted Braun tackles genocide in […]
Sorry it's been a few days since my last blog entry. I’ve been busy travelling, and have also had some serious computer issues to deal with. Anyways, I came across an interesting report featured on the Dutch-funded Menasset.com. It covers a conference recently held between journalists from both Hamas and Fatah factions addressing media issues that have […]
An article in the Norwegian daily Bergens Tidende on July 4 again demonstrated how parts of the European media are struggling to present a non-biased picture of the U.S. presidential election despite their support for Barack Obama. The article sought to analyze the most important battleground states and discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the […]
Anthony Julius of the Mischon de Reya law firm, well known for his work on behalf of Princess Diana and Deborah Lipstadt (an American historian accused by historian David Irving of libel), recently wrote an opinion piece for the The Times of London accusing an imperial United States of throwing its weight around even on […]
As this blog has documented, Barack Obama has received extensive, and mostly positive, coverage in Europe. Just as he is planning a trip to Europe, however, many in the European media are for the first time strongly criticizing some of his policy pronouncements, particularly those seen as signaling a move to the political center for […]
In response to a proposed US Congressional resolution to label the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV a terrorist entity, the head of the channel's administrative council said on Thursday that the resolution goes against international regulations and conditions for media freedom, insisting that the channel plays an important role in informing the Arab/Islamic Ummah on the Palestinian […]
Is today's bulldozer attack in Jerusalem indicative of a developing trend in terrorist tactics in the West Bank? Similar to the March shooting that killed eight Israelis at a religious school in Jerusalem, various Palestinian groups took credit for today's attack that involved a Palestinian man running a Caterpillar front loader into traffic and pedestrians. […]
Steven Erlanger, one of the New York Times’ best foreign affairs writers, filed a delightful report June 30 from a French village in Provence, Collobrieres (population 1600), which has reintroduced the French franc, alongside the euro, in order to boost business. The mayor is quoted as saying, “We lost something with the franc; we lost […]
The front page of Al-Akhbar's Tuesday edition features news of the upcoming release of a Hezbollah music video celebrating the second anniversary of the July War of 2006. Subsequently, the name of the of the video is tammuz, which translates simply as July. According to the pro-opposition Lebanese daily, the picture at the bottom of […]