Event at American University on Arab Media

Submitted by Elizabeth A. Williams (United States), May 12, 2006 at 13:19

On April 25, I attended an event called "Made in Arabia: The Rise of Arab Media and the Challenges of a Post-9/11 World". Salameh Nematt, a journalist with Al Hayat, made some objectives comments about events in the Middle East, but then a questioner asked why there is no good reporting by the U.S. media of the Israeli/Palestinian situation, and he said that American media were under control of Jews, and that the Israeli lobby is the "most powerful in the world."

Rula Dajani of Al Jazeera TV, another speaker, when asked about the Islamic cartoons in the Dutch newspaper, stated that there was some connection between the editor of the paper and Daniel Pipes.

I am somewhat discouraged about trying to pursue a graduate degree in the School of International Service with a concentration in Middle Eastern studies, because no one (including, sadly, myself) responded to either of these two comments with some corrections.

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Daniel Pipes replies:

And it's that hegemonic discourse, to use a leftist term, which creates the atmosphere that leads to such shoddy work.