'What is happening in Lebanon?Laurie King-Irani,
Electronic Lebanon, 2
2 May 2007'
A survey of US television and radio news over the last 24 hours has told me the following:
· Bombings and gunfights in Lebanon. Again.
· Breathless analyses on US news programs about Al-Qaida's spread to the shores of the eastern Mediterranean.
· Analysts using the "cookie cutter" approach to this new development by citing the events of 1975-1976 and the tensions between Lebanese and Palestinian refugees.
· CNN's putative Lebanon analyst, Brent Sadler, characterized Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon as "breeding grounds for terrorism," but now, according to Mr. Sadler, it's Islamic-flavored terrorism.This is all very ominous, anxiety-provoking and compelling "infotainment" -- and completely in line with the distorted views of US foreign policy makers.Such simplistic and knee-jerk reactions to Lebanon's current travails are too easy, and not up to the standards of good and responsible journalism.I've spent much of the past 48 hours trying to get a better grasp on what is really going on in Tripoli. It's not easy to do, and it occured to me this morning that this may, in fact, be the story: the difficulty of interpreting these events stems from the lack of a comprehensive understanding of the ways that dramatic changes throughout the region, and indeed, the world, are echoing through Lebanon's war-damaged sociopolitical landscape.Yesterday, Robert Fisk, the veteran war correspondent and author of the best book on Lebanon's decades of agony, Pity the Nation, observed in The Independent that:
"Not since the war -- yes, the Lebanese civil war that we are all still trying to forget -- have I heard this many bullets cracking across the streets of a Lebanese city. ... The bloody events in Lebanon yesterday passed so swiftly -- and so dangerously for those of us on the streets -- that I am still unsure what happened."
Well, if Robert Fisk is confused, how can Brent Sadler be so sure he knows what is going on in Lebanon? It's easy to point fingers at Syria, to invoke the shadowy and amorphous threat of Al-Qaida, to blame the Palestinians, or (in fine Lebanese fashion) to see a complex and nefarious plot underlying the bloodletting in Tripoli.'
Lees verder: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6931.shtml
· Bombings and gunfights in Lebanon. Again.
· Breathless analyses on US news programs about Al-Qaida's spread to the shores of the eastern Mediterranean.
· Analysts using the "cookie cutter" approach to this new development by citing the events of 1975-1976 and the tensions between Lebanese and Palestinian refugees.
· CNN's putative Lebanon analyst, Brent Sadler, characterized Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon as "breeding grounds for terrorism," but now, according to Mr. Sadler, it's Islamic-flavored terrorism.This is all very ominous, anxiety-provoking and compelling "infotainment" -- and completely in line with the distorted views of US foreign policy makers.Such simplistic and knee-jerk reactions to Lebanon's current travails are too easy, and not up to the standards of good and responsible journalism.I've spent much of the past 48 hours trying to get a better grasp on what is really going on in Tripoli. It's not easy to do, and it occured to me this morning that this may, in fact, be the story: the difficulty of interpreting these events stems from the lack of a comprehensive understanding of the ways that dramatic changes throughout the region, and indeed, the world, are echoing through Lebanon's war-damaged sociopolitical landscape.Yesterday, Robert Fisk, the veteran war correspondent and author of the best book on Lebanon's decades of agony, Pity the Nation, observed in The Independent that:
"Not since the war -- yes, the Lebanese civil war that we are all still trying to forget -- have I heard this many bullets cracking across the streets of a Lebanese city. ... The bloody events in Lebanon yesterday passed so swiftly -- and so dangerously for those of us on the streets -- that I am still unsure what happened."
Well, if Robert Fisk is confused, how can Brent Sadler be so sure he knows what is going on in Lebanon? It's easy to point fingers at Syria, to invoke the shadowy and amorphous threat of Al-Qaida, to blame the Palestinians, or (in fine Lebanese fashion) to see a complex and nefarious plot underlying the bloodletting in Tripoli.'
Lees verder: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6931.shtml
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