Eye on the press

Wednesday, November 28, 2001


Media army:
Ding, dong the witch is dead...
Everyone is familiar with the festive coverage of the fall of Kabul. But let's take a closer look at a most telling quote in a story right the fall.

"Western journalists were greeted as part of the conquering army and swept up in the light-hearted, festive atmosphere," writes John Jennings in The Washington Times.

Jennings waxes poetic - "Teen-age boys rubbed their freshly shaven faces, old men danced in the street, women swayed to music blaring from transistor radios - Taliban forces were on the run yesterday and Kabul residents broke the Islamic regime's dictates in celebration."

Ding, dong the witch is dead, you almost expect the next line to read. But wait -- here's the first actual quote we hear on the ground.

"It is by God's grace that you got rid of [the Taliban]," 9-year-old Hashmat Ullah said. "They used to beat us."

Now that's what we call reporting.



Religious economy:
A different playing ground?
A complex piece in the Economist looks at the twisted message of Osama bin Laden.

"... bin Laden and the network of Islamic fundamentalists he heads want to change this complex picture and make it a simple one. Making artful use of history, theology and current geopolitics, he has, in effect, urged all the world's billion-odd Muslims to bury their internal differences and consider themselves at war with all the world's Christians and Jews."

Bin Laden's quest to recreate the Crusades in reverse is revealed by the Economist for the historic and realpolitic fraud that it is.

Still, the article neglects to cover those on the other side -- i.e. in the West -- also calling for a wider Christian-Muslim battle.

Instead it urges America to provide the world with more evidence of the positive plurality of a United States where most Muslims are happy. The magazine wants Muslim states to follow the same model.

"Why is this not recognized? If America fails to export a much better side of its culture, its model of freedom -- including the freedom to be devout in whatever way you choose, so long as nobody else is hurt -- that is mainly because most traditionally Muslim states, including pro-American ones, will not take the risk of opening their air-waves and their printing-presses to genuinely pluralist debate."

It's interesting the way the Economist manages to condemn the idea of an overt religious war, while promoting -- at the same time -- a different sort of religious contest -- one of open borders which would result in a free-wheeling global competition for human souls.

That openness would certainly result in an interesting dynamic, with each side attempting to promote its values using ever more advanced techniques of modern communications. But with the world the way it is now, who then would be going into such a contest with an unfair advantage?

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