Did anyone else find this morning's interview between Steve Inskeep and Al Jazeera reporter Hasan Ibrahim strange? The interview was in relation to the new documentary film
The Control Room.
Here's a bit of an unofficial transcript:
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[excerpted text]
Inskeep:But you know as a professional that there are a lot of differences in the way things can be edited, the number of times things are repeated or the words that are chosen to describe something.
Ibrahim: Whatever method you use to present your pictures, the fact remains. War has a price. I can not show an incursion into Rafah without showing the casualities. That would be deceiving. But you try to be as careful as possible not to be too graphic.
Inskeep:Well you can show that footage of a suicide bombing and you can call the suicide bomber a suicide bomber or you can call the suicide bomber a martyr. Which I understand Al Jazeera does when it comes to, particularly, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Ibrahim: [unintelligable]at Jazeera is a point of contention. I produce a program where I don't use the word... [excerpted text] We don't read the intro to the news and say someone was martyed while blowing himself up. No. We don't say that.
Inskeep:A lot of people have seen that on television...
Ibrahim: No no no. We describe what Hamas said Hamas...
Inskeep: You read their statement in which Hamas says it's a martyr...
Ibrahim: Of course. We do. We do read their statment... Of course, that's their statement.
Inskeep:This is an all news network you're reporting a lot of 'factual' information. But at the same time, you're putting on talk shows on Al Jazeera on which, as I understand it, someone might call in and rant for five or ten minutes for how the jews are responsible for everything that goes wrong in the world.
Ibrahim: It's a talk show. It's open. I mean we had people that said things that could have been a cause for a riot in the past.[excerpted text] It's an open forum.
Inskeep: Do the folks at Al Jazeera ever say to themselves 'Well you know maybe it's not really responsible to put some of these points of view on the air. Sure people have them but why do we want to be spending all of our technology and effort broadcasting them all of the place.
Ibrahim: Then you are basically sweeping a problem under the rug. The Middle East is in the state it is because for the longest time our way of dealing with problems was sweeping it under the rug. These problems exist. These radical elements exist. And they can not survive in broad daylight. When you bring them out of their holes then you can deal with them.
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Fascinating no? Middle East democracy meets American democracy. Especially telling is Inskeep's tone and his question about the present of talk shows on the Al-Jazeera news network. The implication was somewhat hypocritical given NPR's open caller programming. If you have the time, listen to the whole thing at:
NPR's 'Control Room' Inside Al-Jazeera
I miss Bob Edwards.