“Why do you lie?”

Get this: The GDN publisher Anwar Abdulrahman objects to Jackson Diehl article in the Washington Post published on 3 Jan 2011. Rich? Of course!

I like how he almost always starts by a historical reference to probably demonstrate his intellectual superiority. This time, he invokes the ghost of Lord Northcliffe‘s rather insipid quote of “the power of the press is very great” – he might as well have invoked Fred Flintstone’s “yabba dabba doo” for all the difference it would make to his “column”. The latter quote might have even been more appropriate as it would be uttered just before indulging in his favour pastime of resolute brown-nosing.

Typical of the man, he leaves the essence of Deihl’s piece an engages in a hatchet job against the man himself:

It is important here to explain to readers a little about this man.

Jackson Diehl is a recognised and vehement Zionist supporter who strongly opposes President Obama’s rejection of Israeli settlements expansion.

In fact, The Zionist Organisation of America recently praised his “powerful opinion pieces”.

His track record on Iraq is equally questionable, for Diehl’s columns as the Post’s foreign affairs ‘guru’ were wrong on just about every key issue.

He didn’t seem to consider that serious problems might arise in the aftermath of invasion. When they did, he not once acknowledged that his own analysis had been totally flawed, but instead blamed poor execution by the administration for everything he failed to foresee.

Having explained something of this journalist’s background, based on solid information obtained from the most reliable sources, I ask the Post’s key executives how they have allowed their respectable newspaper to sink into such a quagmire?

GDN 11.1.11

and then he doesn’t stop there, he runs to the principal to tell and to:

In fact, I also implore the American Embassy to protect the reputation of its Press by vigorously pursuing this matter with Washington Post top brass, who should root out such lying and irresponsible journalists.

Maybe the outgoing US Ambassador or his Press Attaché would come over and comment on this request. Not speaking in their name for a second, I would rather think that it’s not in their mandate to monitor nor to pursue matters such as these with a paper’s top brass. Regardless of how vigorous their pursuit might be, I would hazard an educated guess that they would be chased and hounded out of any press offices in the States if they even dared suggest such a thing. They probably would rather be nailed to a cross in the middle of Times Square rather than suffer such a fate. But our interesting learned gentleman forgets that the press in the States is generally not available for sale and corrupt practices like his very own publications are.

He continues with this choice insult:

It is universally known that an average American’s knowledge of the outside world is limited – and that includes its intelligentsia – but for one of the country’s top newspapers to display such ignorance of global events is unacceptable.

I feel very sad at the base standards of such American reporting, which is even reflected to some extent in Newsweek magazine, where a cartoon was published depicting the general political awareness of Americans.

I should think that rather than the US Embassy and the Press answering to his first fervent request to curtail the press, they would take more umbrage with the above ridiculous statements. What they will do about it remains to be seen.

Remember what I said before about the value of good press in a country? Well, Mr. Abdulrahman’s article copiously demonstrates what’s wrong with our press and how we will never progress sufficiently with crap like this being spewed about in it. Just keep in mind as you read his comment, please, what journalistic ethics he employed to come up with that tripe.

Comments

  1. Coolred38

    I had the misfortune of meeting this man in regards to journalism…that’s all I want to say about that.

  2. John Burgess

    Having been Press Attaché at the US Embassy in Manama, I’ll tell you what I’d have done:

    I’d have e-mailed the journalist, told him he had a new member in his fan club, attached a copy of the article, and shared a big LOL!

    Then I would have sent the publisher a letter explaining what ‘Freedom of the Press’ means; how the US government really tries hard to avoid censorship; and attach something that explains the logical fallacy of ‘ad hominem’ attacks.

    Had the publisher’s reaction come from the MinInfo, I’d have done the same, but would have had my bags packed, just in case.

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