Thursday, March 03, 2011

Idiot's breath taken by idiot

An appreciative, mentally defective commenter at The Drum, Unleashed:
My breath was taken by the clarity of your thought.
Here's the first paragraph from The Drum's "clear-thinking" contributing author:
The latest BBC interview with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, situated in a fancy restaurant on the Mediterranean, was painful to watch. Clearly delusional and blaming drug-addled youth and al-Qaeda for the ongoing revolution in his country (which he claimed he didn’t lead, the “masses” were in charge), the Western media have labelled him “mad” and “dangerous to know”.
So according to language-mangler extraordinaire Antony Loewenstein, the interview with Gaddafi is permanently located in a "fancy restaurant" and was conducted by "delusional... Western media" who blame "drug-addled youth and al-Qaeda for the ongoing revolution in" Libya. Right.

Overlooking that anything-but-clear thinking, Loewenstein, who reports on the Middle East from the security of his bedroom at his parents' house in Australia, has the audacity to suggest "some ground rules for decent journalism in the Middle East in the midst of the new Arab world." The first suggested reporting strategy:
Not every story is about Israel and its “security” (do Palestinians not have security concerns, too?). Base yourself somewhere other than Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. Try the West Bank, Beirut, Cairo or Tunis.
Yet for failed Fairfax cadet journalist Loewenstein, who has spent very little time in the Middle East and is based in Australia, nearly every development in the region somehow results from the machinations and plotting of Israel and its supporters. In fact, no-one would pay any attention to Loewenstein's opinions, and that's all that they are, were he not an Israel-hating "Jew".

Update According to Loewenstein, a Perth union fighting the privatisation of government jobs is fighting contractor Serco rather than the current government employer, when the linked article states unequivocally:
The Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union is fighting the State Government's plans to contract out some services at public hospitals to private companies.
Another gross error from Loewenstein.

Update II Loewenstein accuses the ABC's Jon Faine of abusing Australian jihadi David Hicks. Faine stating the obvious is not abusive.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Dan Lewis said...

Did Antony seriously suggest that the media should focus on anything other than Israel?

The boy has never posted any quantity of posts about any other country, as opposed to his obsessive demonisation of Israel.

What a cheek.

One can only hope that the barbarism on display in Libya awakens people to the reality that the "Middle East peace process" doesn't in fact consist solely of Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. In fact, they are minor players.

However too many journos like the booze and women in Israel, as well as that whole "not getting shot for reporting stuff the leaders don't like" thing that Israel has.

I don't think we'll be seeing Antony writing "My Libya Question" any time soon. Although he could probably write a clueless book and not spend much time there as he did with his last "bestseller".

8:33 PM  

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