Monday, April 04, 2005

Hassan Fattah is Back. Hassan Fattah is Back. Wake up the Children and tell the neighbors, NOW. After a long absence, Hassan Fattah is back. But he is not covering Lebanon afterall. Just because his record on Lebanon was at the rate of an error-per-word is no reason to take him away from the Lebanon story. This is not fair. Since when is accuracy needed or desired in Middle East coverage of the New York Times? Hassan Fattah here talks about US Arab TV media coverage of the death of the Pope. He made an important discovery. He learns--I kid you not--that Arab TV stations cover--hold your breath NOW--non-Arab issues. Really? No way. Really? (By the way, don't tell Fattah I said this. He may freak out. But both Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiyya have offices around the world and they have a far better coverage of world--non-Arab--developments and events than US news media--I know, that this is not saying much. You can really learn more about world affairs from those two stations than from any of the major US "news" network. Please, don't tell Fattah I said this. He now may write a front-page story. Leave the man alone.) In tomorrow's New York Times, Hassan Fattah has a front-page story: he has recently learned that Arabs know how to drink...coffee.