Arabs Lift Their Voices

New York Times, April 7, 2005
Arabs Lift Their Voices

Until the recent elections in Iraq and among the Palestinians, the modern Arab world was largely immune to the winds of democracy that have blown everywhere else in the world. Why? That's a pretty important question. For years, though, it was avoided in both the East and the West.

In the West it was avoided because a toxic political correctness infected the academic field of Middle Eastern studies - to such a degree that anyone focusing on the absence of freedom in the Arab world ran the risk of being labeled an "Orientalist" or an "essentialist." It was also avoided because Western governments basically told Arab leaders that all they needed to do was keep their oil pumps open and their prices low and be nice to Israel. If they did all that, they could deny their own people the freedom America advocated everywhere else.

<SNIP>

Thomas L. Friedman's documentary "Does Europe Hate Us?" will be shown on the Discovery Channel tonight at 8 and on the Discovery Times Channel on Monday at 9 p.m.

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/07/opinion/07friedman.html?hp

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What a Bush Shrill!

I'm watching this hack as I type and his documentary is so slanted.

Damn, if this SMF has his way America will be invading France next.

He picked out two Muslim's in France who admitted to supporting OBL. But the way he shot the thing the viewer is led to believe that the two Muslim girls were just randomly picked off the streets.

This really reeks of the first really calculated and organized "news" piece to blantly shove Europe further away and paint them as the possible enemy.

This Friedman is a real hack and I don't put anymore stock in his credibility than I would Gannon.

No more real news value than American Chopper or Monster Garage, but it's plain to see that the Discovery Channel is going to use more than Made in America chopper motors to promote blind patriotism ... now they're officially in the business of Bush Co. propaganda.

I hate neocons ... really I do.

Thoughts?

Here's a link to Discovery's info on it's documentary:

http://dsc.discovery.com/anthology/spotlight/europe/europe.html

Did anyone else watch the Discovery Channel documentary?

Just curious on someone else's thoughts.

Thanks for posting the links!

Looks like The Discovery Channel owns itself, but it does have some interesting share holders.

- Liberty Media Corporation
- Cox Communications, Inc.
- Advance/Newhouse
- John S. Hendricks

http://corporate.discovery.com/finance/shareholders.html

I don't know what the history of those shareholders are in regard to support and funding of the GOP, but I'm guessing they don't give nearly as much to the Dems.

Watched a little special on their new big name man, Jesse James, riding through Mexico with Kid Rock. A lot of tough guy talk and bad mouthing what has gone on in America in regard to political correctness and the safety police.

Some of the same smack Lintball spews on his show. The real man tough guy tones that convince the low paid working man to somehow believe that voting Republican is the lest wimpy thing to do.

I see Discovery really pushing this attitude now and I don't think it's by mistake.

Thoughts?

Here's another discussion thread on the Discovery Channel show tonight. I haven't read it in depth, but wow - there are an awful lot of deleted posts on the thread already:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3444473

The show wasn't good, as in something anyone here should be cheering about.

It was a hack piece.

The neocons will be eating it up.

That was the fuel and fodder they've been looking for. They don't like France and the slanted info in regard to the Muslim girls in the piece will really serve as a sounding board for them to point the finger and say that France is now the problem.

It set itself up to be a wake up call to Americans that it's time to see what the rest of the world thinks of you, but about halfway through Friedman used the stage he had set up to make a case against that mindset. He had an agenda with the documentary and only pointed out the differences between the U.S. and Europe as a way of defending the Bush Administration.

It was B.S.

I see the Discovery Channel as officially entering the Bush Co. propaganda machine.

They've become liars and propagandists for Fascism, below contempt...you can always ignore the lies they call "news" and find the truth on the Internet.

Which just repeated official lies and fascist propaganda, and totally failed to tell the truth about the largest crime in the history of their own city on 9/11/2001! They had the resources to find out the truth, but for whatever financial reason they decided not to do it.

Anyone who believes a single word they read in NYT after that absolute failure, has simply surrendered their mind and their country to the Fascist coup. Whether one is just to stupid to figure out what is really going on, or just to cowardly to say it, makes no difference.

I can't find anything except propaganda in the mainstream. It's always a bunch of bunk to me...

man, what a miserable hack.... how could you type something like that with a straight face?

"In the West it was avoided because a toxic political correctness infected the academic field of Middle Eastern studies - to such a degree that anyone focusing on the absence of freedom in the Arab world ran the risk of being labeled an "Orientalist" or an "essentialist."

oh, fucking BULLSHIT - they all decry the dictatorships propped up by America - the Egypts, the Saudi Arabias, etc. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.