The Fog of Cable (Or American Cable Knowledge Lacking On ME)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.cjrdaily.org/behind_the_news/the_fog_of_cable.php

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 once again why many Americans have such a limited -- and distorted -- view of the world.

I run a center for television and new media at The American University in Cairo, which puts me at the crossroads of journalism in the Arab world. For me, monitoring a crisis like this would normally mean the voracious consumption of Arab and U.S. media -- television, newspapers, Web sites and all the rest.

But for the first week of the war, I was on vacation in California with my family. That has meant catching glimpses of the conflict in bite-sized snatches on cable television between forays to Disneyland, trips to the beach and aquarium tours -- much, I suspect, like many other Americans this summer.

At times, the coverage has seemed as much a fantasy as Disney's Space Mountain, and the level of Middle East knowledge on the part of some television anchors only a few notches higher than that of the tattooed biker couple waiting in line for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

[MADem]

1. Watch MSNBC when Walid Phares is on--he's wonderful

He's got this courtly, charming way of correcting people. He makes the case so kindly, with such calmness and understanding, like a kindergarten teacher gently correcting a child, but if you look in his eyes, you can see his brain screaming "Mother of PEARL, HOW can these DUMBSHITS be so STOOOOOOOOOOOOPID????"

Raghida Dergham is also very savvy, and she does the same sort of thing, only with a bit more clipped efficiency.

[chill_wind]

2. Thank you. I hope you will keep pointing out the yawning chasms

of information and knowledge, to say nothing of the disinformation being foisted on average listeners.

K&R

[TrogL]

3. Why's he got it in for tatooed biker couples?

Some of them are highly intelligent, if living an alternative lifestyle.