The Father of the Aardvark says that we should not read MEMRI:
Abu Aardvark: I'm often asked why I don't recommend MEMRI as a window into the Arab media. After all, there aren't many ways that non-Arabic speakers can get access to it, so why not take advantage? For me, the problem... [is] that their agenda, more or less explicitly, is to highlight the worst and ugliest of the Arab media. They generally don't mistranslate... but their selections and emphases give a misleading picture.... For example, here are the headlines of the last three MEMRI special reports... "U.S. Forces in Iraq Strip the Flesh from Their Victims' Corpses"... "The False Holocaust - The Greatest of Lies Funded by the Zionists"... "The New Iraqi Press and the Jews."
Reading these, you would get the sense that the Arab public debate these days is dominated anti-Semitic and anti-American ravings. Just for contrast, here are the articles that I printed out from my daily rounds of the Arabic press online.... "The media attack on the Arabs.. to where?".... "When Arabs hate their Arabness,"... "Israel and its postponed plan to change the Middle East,"... "Deficiency of Sunni Arab representation in the 'ethnic' Ruling Council,"... "The ruling council and the Arabs,"... "Contributing to Baghdad's crime,"... "Great honorific names in our cultural heritage and daily life: ending the roots of authoritarianism in our culture means getting rid of totalitarian elocutions,"....
All in all, a diverse grab bag. Interesting arguments, on a range of themes.... My point here is to show, again, how little resemblance the real Arab media bears to common assumptions and stereotypes. Sure, the nasty stuff is out there, but it's not all that's out there. And that's why I don't recommend MEMRI.
But then what should those of us who don't read Arabic read, Father of the Aardvark?
Posted by DeLong at November 13, 2003 08:22 AM | TrackBack
Any opinion out there about this?
http://www.worldpress.org/mideast.htm
Two quick suggestions (and these are all sources for translated journalism, as opposed to original journalism in English):
Al-Hayat: London-based, one of the most respected Arabic-language papers, maintains an English-language site. A good selection of the newspaper's articles, including opinion, but certainly not comprehensive.
http://english.daralhayat.com/arab_news/
Al-Jazeera: The Fox News of the Arab world. Not ALL of their stuff is inflammatory propaganda - some of it is good journalism, and definitely of the sort you won't get in the US. (Their stuff often manages to be both good and inflammatory.)
http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage
Posted by: Dave L on November 13, 2003 10:00 AMProblem is, we don't know how accurate the English-language sites of the Arabic press are, either. :-( See "need for better intelligence", passim.
Posted by: Randolph Fritz on November 13, 2003 11:06 AMAcknowledging the reservations stated above, you can find English language new sites for several Mideast countries by starting here:
http://www.refdesk.com/mideast.html#bahrain
Bahrain is alphabetically first. Just scroll down for the rest.
The (Beirut-based) Daily Star has a daily "Middle East media roundup" which is pretty wide-ranging.
Posted by: Tom Scudder on November 14, 2003 03:16 AMThe (Beirut-based) Daily Star has a daily "Middle East media roundup" which is pretty wide-ranging.
Posted by: Tom Scudder on November 14, 2003 03:19 AMApologies for the double-post (and I hope this one isn't doubleposted)
Posted by: Tom Scudder on November 14, 2003 03:21 AMApologies for the double-post (and I hope this one isn't doubleposted)
Posted by: Tom Scudder on November 14, 2003 03:24 AMKeep in mind that MEMRI is run by ex-IDF (Israeli Defence Force) officers. It has a very clear political agenda.
Posted by: Robert Ullmann on November 15, 2003 12:20 AMReport on the news from within Iraq (warning, not the party line):
http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2003/cyb20031114.asp#3
example:
“15-year-old Daham [sp] says TV news reports he watches don’t tell the truth.”
Daham: “A lot happens good in Iraq when Saddam gone.”
Arnot: “So a lot happens good in Iraq.”
Daham: “The smile come back in Iraqi kids.”
Arnot: “After school, we visit a new radio and TV station run by Shia, an unheard-of freedom under the old regime. At the station, everyone we talked to agrees the Arab media is not telling the truth about what’s happening here. And Al-Jazeera tops the list. What do you think of Al-Jazeera?”
[Unidentified Iraqi man starts speaking in Arabic]
Arnot: “In English. In English.”
Unidentified man: “I hate them!”
Arnot: “Iraq’s new minister of industry and minerals had this theory about Al-Jazeera.”
Minister: “Well, I don’t know. Probably, they have something against the Americans.”
Arnot concluded: “As we’ve seen, Iraqis themselves are angrier than the American administration about the barrage of negative stories coming out of Iraq, so angry that the ayatollah himself broke the rules and allowed to us come into this, one of the holiest sites in all of Shia Islam, right during the height of Ramadan. Chris, back to you.”
Posted by: Marc M on November 15, 2003 07:09 AM