Bloggers on the Middle East

"Bloggers have had a tough time winning legitimacy in the US, with US President Barack Obama only fielding the first question from a Huffington Post reporter at a White House briefing in 2009. But for Arab-American bloggers, the credibility they've earned writing about the "Arab Spring" is self-evident.  One such blogger is As’ad AbuKhalil, who runs the The Angry Arab News Service. The Lebanese-born blogger has such disdain for American mainstream media – he was a freelance consultant for NBC and ABC news – that his writing has garnered the attention, as well as respect, of almost all commentators on the Middle East and Islam.  AbuKhalil has appeared on numerous news programmes and has had his work published across international news outlets. One thing that separates him from others, is that “he is able to capture the sentiments of so many people on the ground in the region and has become almost a calling point for so many young people, including myself, who want to speak out,”  said Ismail Hassan, another US-based blogger who writes under an assumed name." (thanks Mirvat)