David Ignatius of the Washington Post writes on Arab media. Does he know Arabic? No. Has he eaten falafil? Well, yes, a few times, why? Well, that passes as qualification in the US. You did not know that. In fairness to Ignatius: he once did research; he asked the right-wing director of Saudi channel Al-Arabiyya about his formula for the station: the guy told him "professionalism." Ignatius wrote it down, and reported it. That is research, and this is insightful. Ignatius may get a Pulitzer for his reporting on Arab media.