Last week, I noted how Geneive Abdo, a journalist and liaison to the UN’s “Dialogue of Civilizations” program, had promoted the wacky conspiracy theory on Australia’s national radio that Israel had bombed their own diplomats.
Increasingly, it appears as if the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is trying to give National Public Radio a run for its money in the promotion of some really off-kilter analysis. On February 20, for example, ABC asked Robert Fisk for his analysis of Syria. Fisk tried to shift the focus to condemnation of Israel—which he suggested was Assad’s big backer—and the United States.
Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz, a policy analyst at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, makes short-work of Fisk’s misstatements and counterfactual analysis. It certainly is worth reading. Alas, public radio whether in the United States or Down Under does itself a disfavor when it allows itself to be used so blatantly for a political agenda.
No doubt about it: Winston Smith would have felt right at home at NPR.
Your objection is not that there is a political agenda, but that it's not yours, hasbara all the time.
As Pat Moynihan used to say Grumpy, everyone's entitled to their own opinion but not their own facts.
My worry is not that crazy people have microphones, it's that they have followers.