Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Faysal Al-Qasim hosted a very entertaining show on Al-Itiijah Al-Mu`awkis on Al-Jazeera TV yesterday. The guests were Raghidah Dirgham and Tal`at Ar-Rumayh: the first is a conservative pro-Saudi Lebanese journalist, and Rumayh is a demogogic Islamist. But Rumayh is very effective on TV: he combines the best of (an element in) Egyptian journalistic tradition: sense of humor, articulateness, passion, and vulgarism when required. While Rumayh hit below the belt when he talked about Dirgham's "relationship" with Ja`ja` (Ga`ga`) and when he cited the views of the new-Nazi Austrian politician, Haider, he dominated the show and scored points from the standpoint of evaluating a debate. He also at the end challenged Dirgham to criticize Saudi Arabia once, although he showered praise on Qatar on the show. But my friend `Amir thinks the show was important for another reason: it succeeded in undermining the holiness that surrounded the personality of Rafiq Hariri since his death. It was long over due. The show also was the first that I saw that clearly discredited the very formation of an international tribunal for the dead Hariri dude.