Posted on 01/09/2015 9:42:16 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
As journalists worldwide reacted with universal revulsion at the massacre of some of their own by Islamic jihadists in Paris, Al Jazeera English editor and executive producer Salah-Aldeen Khadr sent out a staff-wide email.
“Please accept this note in the spirit it is intended — to make our coverage the best it can be,” the London-based Khadr wrote Thursday, in the first of a series of internal emails leaked to National Review Online. “We are Al Jazeera!”
Below was a list of “suggestions” for how anchors and correspondents at the Qatar-based news outlet should cover Wednesday’s slaughter at the Charlie Hebdo office (the full emails can be found below).
Khadr urged his employees to ask if this was “really an attack on ‘free speech,’” discuss whether “I am Charlie” is an “alienating slogan,” caution viewers against “making this a free speech aka ‘European Values’ under attack binary [sic],” and portray the attack as “a clash of extremist fringes.”
“Defending freedom of expression in the face of oppression is one thing; insisting on the right to be obnoxious and offensive just because you can is infantile,” Khadr wrote. “Baiting extremists isn’t bravely defiant when your manner of doing so is more significant in offending millions of moderate people as well. And within a climate where violent response—however illegitimate [sic]—is a real risk, taking a goading stand on a principle virtually no one contests is worse than pointless: it’s pointlessly all about you.”
His denunciation of Charlie Hebdo’s publication of cartoons mocking the prophet Mohammed didn’t sit well with some Al Jazeera English employees.
Hours later, U.S.-based correspondent Tom Ackerman sent an email quoting a paragraph from a New York Times’ January 7 column by Ross Douthat. The op-ed argued that cartoons like the ones that drove the radical Islamists to murder must be published, “because the murderers cannot be allowed for a single moment to think that their strategy can succeed.”
That precipitated an angry backlash from the network’s Qatar-based correspondents, revealing in the process a deep cultural rift at a network once accused of overt anti-Western bias.
“I guess if you insult 1.5 billion people chances are one or two of them will kill you,” wrote Mohamed Vall Salem, who reported for Al Jazeera’s Arab-language channel before joining its English wing in 2006. “And I guess if you encourage people to go on insulting 1.5 billion people about their most sacred icons then you just want more killings because as I said in 1.5 billion there will remain some fools who don’t abide by the laws or know about free speech.” [sic]
“What Charlie Hebdo did was not free speech it was an abuse of free speech in my opinion, go back to the cartoons and have a look at them!” Salem later wrote. “It’ snot [sic] about what the drawing said, it was about how they said it. I condemn those heinous killings, but I’M NOT CHARLIE.”
That prompted BBC alum Jacky Rowland — now Al Jazeera English’s senior correspondent in Paris — to email a “polite reminder” to her colleague: “#journalismsinotacrime.”
But her response triggered a furious reaction from another of the network’s Arab correspondents. “First I condemn the brutal killing,” wrote Omar Al Saleh, a “roving reporter” currently on assignment in Yemen. “But I AM NOT CHARLIE.”
“JOURNALISM IS NOT A CRIME [but] INSULTISM IS NOT JOURNALISM,” he raged. “AND NOT DOING JOURNALISM PROPERLY IS A CRIME.”
The heated back-and-forth illustrates Al Jazeera English’s precarious balance between its Arab center of gravity and the Western correspondents it employs. After being accused for years of fomenting anti-Western sentiment, most damningly by some of its own anchors, the network made a concerted effort to rebrand, hiring a slew American and European reporters — especially those who had trouble getting jobs in their own domestic markets.
As these internal emails show, that rebranding has taken a toll on the network’s newsroom cohesion — particularly regarding stories like the Charlie Hebdo cartoons, which break so sharply on cultural fault lines.
FULL LEAKED EMAIL EXCHANGE:
Executive producer Salah-Aldeen Khadr:
Thursday, January 08, 2015 Subject: AJ coverage of events in Paris
Dear Editorial colleagues,
Please accept this note in the spirit it is intended – to make our coverage the best that it can be …. We are Al Jazeera!!!!
My suggestion is that we question and raise the following points in our coverage – studio/anchors/guests/correspondents:
•This was a targeted attack, not a broad attack on the french population a la Twin towers or 7/7 style. So who was this attack against? The whole of France/EU society? Or specifically this magazine. The difference lies in how this is reported not in how terrible the act is obviously – murder is murder either way… but poses a narrower question of the “why”? attack on french society and values? Only if you consider CH’s racist caricatures to be the best of European intellectual production (total whitewash on that at the moment)
•Was this really an attack on “Free speech”? Who is attacking free speech here exactly? Does an attack by 2-3 guys on a controversial magazine equate to a civilizational attack on European values..? Really?
•“I am Charlie” as an alienating slogan – with us or against us type of statement – one can be anti-CH’s racism and ALSO against murdering people(!) (obvious I know but worth stating)
•Also worth stating that we still don’t know much about the motivations of the attackers outside of the few words overheard on the video. Yes, clearly it was a “punishment” for the cartoons, but it didn’t take them 8/9 years to prep this attack (2006 was Danish/CH publication) – this is perhaps a response to something more immediate…French action against ISIL…? Mali? Libya? CH just the target ie focus of the attack..?
•Danger in making this a free speech aka “European Values” under attack binary is that it once again constructs European identity in opposition to Islam (sacred depictions) and cements the notion of a European identity under threat from an Islamic retrograde culture of which the attackers are merely the violent tip of the iceberg (see the seeping of Far Right discourse into french normalcy with Houellebecque’s novel for example)
•The key is to look at the biographies of these guys – contrary to conventional wisdom, they were radicalised by images of Abu Ghraib not by images of the Prophet Mohammed
•You don’t actually stick it to the terrorists by insulting the majority of Muslims by reproducing more cartoons – you actually entrench the very animosity and divisions these guys seek to sow.
•This is a clash of extremist fringes…
I suggest a re-read of the Time magazine article back from 2011 and I have selected the most poignant/important excerpt….
http://world.time.com/2011/11/02/firebombed-french-paper-a-victim-of-islamistsor-its-own-obnoxious-islamophobia/?iid=gs-article-mostpop1http://world.time.com/2011/11/02/firebombed-french-paper-a-victim-of-islamistsor-its-own-obnoxious-islamophobia/?iid=gs-article-mostpop1
•It’s unclear what the objectives of the caricatures were other than to offend Muslims—and provoke hysteria among extremists.
Defending freedom of expression in the face of oppression is one thing; insisting on the right to be obnoxious and offensive just because you can is infantile. Baiting extremists isn’t bravely defiant when your manner of doing so is more significant in offending millions of moderate people as well. And within a climate where violent response—however illegitimate—is a real risk, taking a goading stand on a principle virtually no one contests is worse than pointless: it’s pointlessly all about you.
Kind regards
Salah-Aldeen Khadr Executive Producer Al Jazeera English
U.S.-based correspondent Tom Ackerman:
Friday, January 9, 2015 Subject: RE: AJ coverage of events in Paris
If a large enough group of someone is willing to kill you for saying something, then it’s something that almost certainly needs to be said, because otherwise the violent have veto power over liberal civilization, and when that scenario obtains it isn’t really a liberal civilization any more….liberalism doesn’t depend on everyone offending everyone else all the time, and it’s okay to prefer a society where offense for its own sake is limited rather than pervasive. But when offenses are policed by murder, that’s when we need more of them, not less, because the murderers cannot be allowed for a single moment to think that their strategy can succeed.
-Ross Douthat in the NY Times
Doha-based correspondent Mohamed Vall Salem:
Friday, January 9, 2015 Subject: RE: AJ coverage of events in Paris
“large enough group”?
Friday, January 9, 2015 Subject: RE: AJ coverage of events in Paris
Rejoinder,
I guess if you insult 1.5 billion people chances are one or two of them will kill you… they don’t represent the 1.5 who swallowed the insult in silence and patience in the name of free speech.
And I guess if you encourage people to go on insulting 1.5 billion people about their most sacred icons then you just want more killings because as I said in 1.5 billion there will remain some fools who don’t abide by the laws or know about free speech. Simply put, it’s difficult to control and tame and brake down or otherwise punish or educate all those 1.5 billion people.
Isn’t it simply wiser to respect peoples’ sacred values and sacred icons? Respect breeds respect, insult can degenerate into something worse than just insult, depending who who’s at the the receiving end.
Last, if you no longer have anything that you hold sacred (the death of religion and the death of God etc…), there 1.5 billion people who still have … don’t ignore their values in the name of yours, because values are a cultural construct, they vary from age to age and from culture to culture …
Last, last: what Charlie Hebdo did was not free speech it was an abuse of free speech in my opinion, go back to the cartoons and have a look at them! It’ snot about what the drawing said, it was about how they said it.
I condemn those heinous killings, but I’M NOT CHARLIE
Mohamed Vall
Senior Paris correspondent Jacky Rowland:
Friday, January 9, 2015
Subject: RE: AJ coverage of events in Paris
Dear all
We are Aljazeera. So, a polite reminder:
#journalismisnotacrime
Kind regards
Jacky
Jacky Rowland Senior Correspondent, Paris Aljazeera English
Roving reporter Omar Al Saleh:
Friday, January 9, 2015 Subject: RE: AJ coverage of events in Paris
First i condemn the brutal killing. But I AM NOT CHARLIE.
JOURNALISM IS NOT A CRIME INSULTISM IS NOT JOURNALISM AND NOT DOING JOURNALISM PROPERLY IS CRIME
OMAR AL SALEH | ROVING REPORTER
ALJAZEERA ENGLISH CHANNEL NEWS DEPT
>>“I guess if you insult 1.5 billion people chances are one or two of them will kill you,”
Despite this, the 2.5 billion Christians do not kill you for insulting them. Once again, Islam answers the question about itself, “Why are you people so darned crazy?”
The answer: “Because we are Islam”
Al Gore’s buddies.
Very good. Post of the day.
If it irritates Al Jazeera, the propaganda outlet for the Islamofascists, then it’s probably a good thing.
Looking at the cartoons I've seen I think the Charlie Hedbo cartoonists were obsessed with gay sex.
The lying Nazis at Al Jazeera are widely hated throughout the Middle East. Both Arabs and Israelis shoot at these Al Jazeera scum when they dare to show their faces.
Great article. Al Jazeera’s ill fitting mask is now off.
The mask slipped again...
Alahawahoo Wackybar!
The Al Jesus news folks are lining up to be smeared in pig grease.
I love it.
Al Gore’s pals.
“The key is to look at the biographies of these guys – contrary to conventional wisdom, they were radicalised by images of Abu Ghraib”
They should as hell didn’t give a f*** about muslims when Saddam Hussein was having his sons rape the wives of prisoners there, when he was cutting off the hands of prisoners, disemboweling prisoners, etc.
Nope some photos of terrorists captured on the battlefield with panties on their heads (which was in violation of procedure and being prosecuted as such at the time the photos were leaked by the uncle of one of the violating perps) is what p!ssed off the muslim world.
It was anti-Western anger, NOT anti-Abu Ghraib anger.
Their anger is not my fault but it is my problem and if they can’t get it under control they will have to deal with the Western world’s response.
You beat me to it!
Where is the high-profile Muslim leader standing up tall in his turban and denouncing in no uncertain terms, no waffling, no apology-not-really-an-apology?
Heck, we Christians have our nut-jobs, too, but you don't see mainstream Christians waffling when Westboro Baptist protests at a soldier's funeral.
That group is marginalized, and rightly so. But you won't see "moderate" Muslims doing that, because secretly they agree with the "radicals."
If Algorejeera was anything remotely resembling journalism, it would have run 24 hours of anti-terroristic programming.
Clever — that deserves to go viral.
NOT DOING JOURNALISM PROPERLY IS A CRIME
Somebody tell Dan Rather
The author's grasp of the English language is limited by her vocabulary and ability to recall an appropriate action verb in it's proper tense to communicate her meaning effectively.
Using the gerund of 'to do' always manifests a lack of journalistic ability and likely poor grammar.
Ironically, while the complaint alleges journalistic inaction is criminal, she is defending criminal actions against journalistic creativity in satirical cartoons.
I don’t hear moderate black Americans denouncing Jesse Jackass, Jeremiah Wright, Al Sharpton, or Barack Obama when they instigate race riots and protest at police officer funerals calling for the deaths of more cops.
Because I agree with you.
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