A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Thursday, July 8, 2010

To Praise or Not to Praise Fadlallah

I know I've already posted once today on Fadlallah, but in the wake of CNN' firing Octavia Nasr for a Tweet expressing admiration for the man, perhaps CNN should comment on the kind words spoken by, among others, by my count so far, King ‘Abdullah II of Jordan, Nuri al-Maliki of Iraq, and NATO Ally Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.

But then, those guys don't work for CNN.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was Octavia Nasr's offense simply praising Fadlallah or that she noted him as "one of Hezbollah's giants", given that the group is listed on the US Terrorist Watch List. The other figures might be US allies, but they aren't American public figures.

Michael Collins Dunn said...

Was Octavia Nasr an "American public figure"? In one sense, I guess so (in the NY TImes vs. Sullivan libel law definition of "public figure"), but I think journalists should have some rights to express opinion outside their publication. That her Twitter account had "CNN" in the name tag, however, is a complicating factor. Poorly chosen words, I'll admit.

Tim said...

Perfidious Albion?

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f8ddc190-8b83-11df-ab4d-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=rss

She has subsequently apologized.