Author Archive

Articles by Lawrence Pintak | Email the Author

 

1. Behind the News

   Ira Glass’s Casablanca Moment with Mike Daisey

   March 20, 2012 11:08 AM

   Over the weekend, as just about anyone with electricity knows by now, the public radio program This American Life fell on its sword over its bad Apple episode. The gesture was a noble one. As CJR’s Ryan Chittum <a href=http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/audit_notes_greg_smith_mike_da.php... Continue reading

2. Campaign Desk

   POWs, Dead Dictators, and Journalistic Ethics

   October 27, 2011 02:11 PM

   The young Iranian prisoner was no more than fourteen, still caked with a thick layer of dust from the battlefield. He was among thousands of old men and young boys being held in an Iraqi POW camp somewhere outside Basrah.... Continue reading

3. Cover Story

   English Lesson

   May 5, 2011 08:30 AM

   [This is a sidebar article to the May/June 2011 cover story, "Breathing Room: Toward a new Arab media," which you can read here.] Back in November 2008, I skewered Al Jazeera English’s live coverage of election night... Continue reading

4. Cover Story

   Breathing Room

   May 5, 2011 08:30 AM

   Before there was Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or even Al Jazeera, there was Hama, Syria. It was 1982 and an anti-government protest was put down with ferocious violence. The Syrian government simply destroyed whole sections of the city,... Continue reading

5. Campaign Desk

   Egypt’s Revolution through My Students’ Eyes

   March 2, 2011 12:13 PM

   “I was attacked today when I tried to protect some foreigners.” The Facebook message arrived in my inbox early afternoon Pacific time. It was evening in Cairo on Feb. 4, the pivotal “Day of Anger” that would ultimately lead to... Continue reading

6. Behind the News

   Indonesian Journalism: Lessons for the U.S.?

   February 4, 2011 11:02 AM

   American journalism is, as they say, “in transition.” But while the import of traditional values such as accuracy, balance, and professionalism are under question in the U.S., they remain the gold standard in places throwing off the yoke of autocratic... Continue reading

7. Campaign Desk

   Arab Media Wars

   January 23, 2009 12:22 PM

   ABU DHABI – Surf the blogs in the Arab world and you find a common theme: the Bush administration has blindly supported Israel’s Gaza war and the U.S. media has been shilling for “the aggressors.” Ask the average American and... Continue reading

8. Campaign Desk

   Borderless Journalism in Gaza

   January 21, 2009 09:09 AM

   CAIRO – In television terms, Gaza has been déjà vu all over again. U.S. television has been dominated by talking heads parroting Israel’s talking points, the wide shots of bombs exploding and smoke pillars that have become the white noise... Continue reading

9. Campaign Desk

   Come On, Al Jazeera English

   November 6, 2008 08:00 AM

   There was something almost forlorn about Al Jazeera English’s coverage of the U.S. election Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. It was a bit like watching a local college TV station try to compete with the big boys—no matter how hard... Continue reading

10. Behind the News

    Egypt Shuts Down Insurgent TV, But Other U.S. Allies Keep It Live

    February 28, 2007 01:44 PM

    Egypt this week pulled the plug on Al-Zawraa, the controversial channel controlled by Iraq's Sunni insurgency, but it is still available across the Middle East thanks to America's Gulf allies. The channel broadcasts non-stop footage of attacks on... Continue reading

11. Politics

    Insurgent TV Coming to a Satellite Near You?

    January 10, 2007 10:01 AM

    A controversial TV channel that is the voice of Iraq's anti-American insurgents looks set to open another front in the propaganda war against the U.S. The head of Al-Zawraa, which airs footage produced by the Islamic Army... Continue reading

12. Behind the News

    Cairo Ignores U.S. Request to Pull Plug on Jihadi TV in Iraq

    January 4, 2007 02:07 PM

    Sunni-Shia power politics and U.S.-Egyptian relations are at the center of a dispute over a satellite television station that is the latest weapon in the arsenal of Iraq's insurgents. Al-Zawraa, an Iraq-based television version of the jihadi Web... Continue reading

13. Behind the News

    Will Al-Jazeera English Find Its Groove?

    November 30, 2006 12:00 PM

    Bad news is often good news for journalists. Last week's assassination of Lebanese opposition leader Pierre Gemayel may have been exactly that for Al-Jazeera English, the Westernized cousin of the channel the Bush administration loves to hate. ... Continue reading

14. Behind the News

    Look Who’s Fair And Balanced

    August 22, 2006 12:32 PM

    The summer of 2006 marked an important milestone for Arab media. Israel and Hezbollah were locked in a bitter conflict that would claim the lives of more than 150 Israelis and an estimated 1,000 Lebanese -- a third of them... Continue reading

15. Politics

    Open Season on Journalists in the Middle East

    August 1, 2006 02:06 PM

    After the carnage of this past weekend in the Middle East, two previous incidents seemed to fade into insignificance -- and that's understandable, but they bear noting. The Israeli destruction of TV transmission towers in Lebanon and... Continue reading

16. Behind the News

    The Fog of Cable

    July 21, 2006 01:46 PM

    Napa Valley, Calif. -- As someone who lives and breathes Middle East politics and media, I have had the bizarre -- and frustrating -- experience of watching the current conflict play out on U.S. cable television, and I am reminded... Continue reading

17. Behind the News

    Al-Jazeera International, Not Quite Ready for Takeoff

    April 27, 2006 10:00 AM

    CAIRO - Those new monitors they're installing in Washington briefing rooms will remain dark for a little while longer: Al-Jazeera International (AJI), the English-language cousin to the Bush administration's Qatar-based nemesis, has once more delayed its launch plans. ... Continue reading

18. Behind the News

    Western, Arab Journalists Miles Apart in Cartoon Rift

    February 3, 2006 02:43 PM

    DOHA, QATAR - It is a row that gives new meaning to the phrase, "publish and be damned." The convulsion of outrage across the Muslim world over the publication of editorial cartoons deemed blasphemous to the Prophet Muhammad... Continue reading

19. Behind the News

    A New Arab Media Rises From the Rubble

    December 14, 2005 11:15 AM

    CAIRO -- In the explosion that killed An Nahar publisher Gebran Tueni in Beirut Monday could be heard the echoes of a new battle being waged in the Middle East. It is a conflict that pits the old guard of... Continue reading