Mona Eltahawy to CNN: Call Egypt an Uprising, not Chaos
Noted Egyptian journalist and speaker Mona Eltahawy takes CNN to task for their sensational descriptions of the events in Egypt and call it for what it is: a people's uprising and revolution.
The New York Times describes an interview on CNN with Mona Eltahawy:
Eltahawy ... appealed to the media to not fall for what she described as a Mubarak regime plot to make the protests in Egypt seem like dangerous anarchy. "I urge you to use the words 'revolt' and 'uprising' and 'revolution' and not 'chaos' and not 'unrest, we are talking about a historic moment," she said.
Moments later, as Ms. Eltahawy suggested that looting and damage to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo shown on Egyptian television was the work of "the police and the thugs of Hosni Mubarak," the lower third of the screen displayed the banner headline: "EGYPT IN CHAOS."
She added, "Egyptians want to fix Egypt, they don't want to destroy Egypt."
The network then displayed video from Egyptian state television of damage to the museum, which has been shown around the world on Saturday.
Less than hour later CNN finally smartened up (a little) and began calling it what it is, as Robert Mackey noted.
Less than an hour after Mona Eltahway, an Egyptian blogger and journalist, appealed to CNN to stop focusing on looting and security problems in Egypt following the government’s decision to withdraw the police from the streets, the broadcaster has changed its onscreen headline from “CHAOS IN EGYPT” to “UPRISING IN EGYPT.”
So she continues to call it 'unrest' while the banner splashed "Egypt in Chaos" anew.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Can't it be both? I don't understand why we have to split hairs.
I don't think it's splitting hairs. The U.S. government has a vested interest in keeping Mubarak in power, which is why our top officials are hesitating to approve this uprising. CNN has lots of viewers, so it's important how they (and other large news outlets) frame the events that they're reporting on.
A "people's uprising" elicits sympathy and support from the masses of ordinary people around the world, while a state of "chaos" obviously needs to be suppressed by the government so that order and safety will prevail.
A people's uprising presents to the world serious questions about the government in power. People's revolutions have powerful reasons behind them -- otherwise, normal men and women would not risk their lives to protest in the streets, facing armed soldiers, tear gas, beatings and bullets.
stamp of approval? That will come as news to the Egyptians. Of course, a US stamp of approval is not exactly a guarantee of success is it? Au contraire. Historical examples from Hungary to Iran would seem to indicate that the backing an uprising by the United States usually arms the government in question by providing the excuse that they are fighting foreign intervention in their domestic affairs. Best strategy: let the American people express their support and let the US government shut up.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
both. Damn few uprisings, if any, don't produce chaos. It is a foolish distinction.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
The reason why I don't watch CNN much any longer & surely not Wolfe Blitzer - is as illustrated by the asshole with Frederika who had to make this 'clarification.'
Yes, I moved on to Al Jazeera, amazing difference. Try it, if you are done watching people who clearly have no understanding of either the region or democracy. http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/
They are just more lackeys that blindly toe the Corporate Politboro line. The Kremlin could have only wished they had so many flaccid dupes to use to deceive the public. The ex-Pravda people must feel really inferior after watching these stooges in action.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
(or I guess I would have)?
That people, World wide are sick and tired of the "New World Order" where the few have everything, everyone else is a peasant that deserves nothing...and that includes the U.S. It should be called the New World Market...Eventually even the Army or National guard won't be able to protect these parasites in power, as the soldier may be looking down the barrel at his mother, father, wo have been denied health care, drinkable water, food, etc.....thats why bush jr. perverted the posse comataus (sp?) act whereby , for example , the National Guard from Montana can be used in Florida to quell civil unrest, and visa versa...so American servicemen would not have to shoot their families, if they saw them at a protets while protecting an elitists in a gated community....
America better wise up..cuz even the crooked press as described above, and their simpleton use of language to paint an erroneous picture, won't be able to stop..wait for it......that's right..."THE PEOPLE" from taking the power back in order to have a better life
and that's not a Marxists Axiom, remember "WE THE PEOPLE" ???
Using Agents Provocateur to Justify a Crack Down On the Protesters?
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/01/is-egy...
false flag museum destruction?
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
Don't watch CNN anymore because it is turning into another Faux Noise.
"Wikipedia" defines false flag terror as follows:
"False flag operations are covert operations conducted by governments, corporations, or other organizations, which are designed to appear as if they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is, flying the flag of a country other than one's own. False flag operations are not limited to war and counter-insurgency operations, and have been used in peace-time; for example, during Italy's strategy of tension.
If intelligence agencies or federal, state or local police themselves commit acts of violence against people or property, and then blame it on peaceful protesters, that is - by definition - false flag terror."
...admit to false flag provacateuring.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfzUOx53Rg
busted.
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
not the most respected force in Canada, and to be accurate they made no such admission. They admitted to having undercover officers present, dressed as rioters. No one believed them if it is any comfort.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
The once respected boys in red serge were guilty in stirring up the pot also.
http://creekside1.blogspot.com/2009/07/rcmp-p...
The mounties were renting out their officers directly to oil and gas interests to harass environmentalists. There is a reason the current commissioner is the first one not to be drawn from the ranks and why many senior heads at the RCMP have rolled. We all have our little areas of interest when it comes to social justice do we not? The behavior of the RCMP has been one of mine for years. The campaign for reform which I joined has not been ineffective in getting issues regarding the RCMP before the public.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
It should be noted that Mubarak's address to the nation was delivered in the middle of the night, Egyptian time. This address to the nation was meant for America not Egypt. The people of Egypt don't matter to Mubarak, just his sponsors in America.
Proper terminology will help the American people better understand events so we can better understand
why what is happening is all about us and what our options are to influence its outcome.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
...certainly going to give us a better story than CNN (or any other US propaganda outlet)
and so here is another take.
Russia today had Webster Tarpley on for his always comprehensive take on the situation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1USdMUWbIdo&fe...
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
Most of the Arabic countries where they principally operate aren't going to be any too pleased if they are seen to, or even thought to assist, in keeping unrest going. Just like every other news organization. I've been watching coverage from many different networks including Al Jazeera and I can't say their coverage has been all that superior to anyone else,except maybe CNN. They spent quite enough time bewailing their broken camera.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
I have no doubts about the use of Agents Provocateur by Mubarak in an effort to de-legitimize the movement, and to make violent response by the state Apperachiks seem as an "acceptable" measure.
It is, in fact, a desperate act by one who realizes he's running out of cards to play. We've all seen this movie before, only the names (and regimes) have changed. I wish the people of Egypt much success. Somewhere, Che is smiling.
"No one ever said these people were logically consistent."
- watchdog -
on the right hand side of the screen reminds us, CNN has already entered the ninth circle of hell.
And since most of us do not believe in such places anyway, why bother to watch much less report on what they say.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
is AlJazeera's 6 oclock News header.
And the Egyptian Govt isnt exaclty on their side:
Egypt shuts down Al Jazeera bureau
I'm Boycotting NewsCorp! Heres what not to buy: http://www.cjr.org/resources/index.php?c=news...
of a tyrant's small thinking. In our era of inter-connectivity there are always work-around options available.
"No one ever said these people were logically consistent."
- watchdog -
"of a tyrant's small thinking" I assume you are speaking of Obama.
since we still have functioning electronic toys. This unprecedented shut-down of electronic communication and the move against journalism smacks of 1930's Germany.
"No one ever said these people were logically consistent."
- watchdog -
Richard Engel is reporting it as chaos also.
It is chaos - for the elites. The gravy train is looking like it's about to derail and that ain't good for the Egyptian recipients of $2 billion a year, (and I'm sure none of that "aid" gets skimmed...), the US MIC who gets those lucrative contracts, and Israel, who will now have to find another willing accomplice in the region. Are the Saudis up to the task?
CNN is pushing the Obama/Mubarak/Isreal inference that this is a "criminal disturbance" to justify gunning down the people. Luckily it looks like the Egyptian army does'nt want to go along.
like they did after the State of the Union. I'm sure she would have an "interesting" explanation.
That will surely extinguish the burning buildings and vehicles and prevent looting.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
oh sure let's soften the description to "unrest" or make it sound inspiring and uplifting by calling it an "uprising". How about we call it a rave next? Orwellian Bullpucky. When people have to take up arms to protect themselves and their property it is chaos. When the police have fled and prisoners are escaping, it is chaos. I'm sure the reason people are fleeing the country in droves is because there is law and order throughout the country. Egypt meet Chaos..
amounts to a big so what. It's as if you think chaos is any different from your everyday life. I shudder to think what you think.
I prefer to call it
Viagragate.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
The place is crawling with tumescent obelisks.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
How long before your MSM begins talking about the 81 million insurgents and/or terrorists in Egypt?
Darn troublemakers one and all.
Wolf? Sean? Kristol?
Didn't you guys get the memo?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KF5NfzmIvU
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gtdh418mL8
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Chaos is not a bad word. If you ask me, and if you think about it, chaos is perfect liberty, and by the way chaos is also the equivalent of the void from which all came in Greek creation stories, and it's the watery abyss in Genesis 1:2. In corporate and repressive societies, yes chaos/liberty is a thing to be shunned. Just ask Egypt today if chaos is good or bad. If only America were as capable as Egypt.
it is an uprising.
A revolution requires a change in the political economy (France, the American civil war, russia 1917, china 1948, cuba 1958, etc.). There is no change in political economy in Egypt, therefore, no revolution.
Also, the American Revolution was not a revolution. It was a colonial uprising. The Civil War was a revolution - a successful deconstruction of medieval manorial chattel slave state by the forces supporting a modern industrial wage slave state.
It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.
-George Carlin
Let's compare and contrast two interviews: CNN's and RNN's. (The latter is the Real News Network, currently only online, but working on getting a television station.)
The comparisons are obvious: Each interviews an Egyptian national enthused at the prospect of Mubarek's overthrow. Each interviewer interjects comments and questions designed to scrutinize the stance of the interviewee.
But note how RNN's interview is calm, informative and detailed. CNN's is wild, sensational and simplistic.
When Paul Jay interrupts his interviewee to probe further, even when contradicting his interviewee, he is not injecting moral condemnation or even condescension into the conversation; he is trying to understand and inform. When Fredricka Whitfeld first introduces her guest, she says that she "describes this as the most exciting thing in her life" with a tone of condescending disbelief, and interrupts with a similarly condemning tone.
Note also the subjects they choose to discuss. RNN discusses the roots of the problem, and tries to understand the mindset of everyone involved. CNN verges on asking questions like, "How can Egyptians do such damages to their own museums and artistic treasures?"
Give me RNN any day.
Everyone is equally entitled to the pursuit of happiness. Wasn't that once self evident?
Do they come with sponge-baths?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
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