Asymmetrical Information

Yet more evidence that the Arab press will publish anything, no matter how absurd.

Thanks for the mention Jane.

My posts's been updated to include a denial by the Vice President's office.

Oh come on Niraj, it's not like Arabs have a monopoly on absurd "news".

Mo:
"Oh come on Niraj, it's not like Arabs have a monopoly on absurd 'news' ".

I'd dispute that. Arab absurdity outdoes even left-wing absurdity. See this story for a bizarre example.

Hat tip to Dagh Nielsen

Delendum Esse Saudi Arabia!

Yet more evidence that the Arab press will publish anything, no matter how absurd.

Perhaps this explains why the NYSE revoked the credentials of Al-Jazeera's correspondants citing "lack of responsible business news."

I don't want to go out on a limb here, but it would be nice if NYSE revoked people's credentials for things they or their station did, as opposed to revoking them because of what some other media outlet that happens to be in Arabic did.

Seeing as how Al-Jazeera stories are often picked up by Western media, and that they didn't run the story on Cheney's daughter (that was Al Quds Al Arabi), they might not actually deserve the treatment they're getting from the NYSE.

The least the NYSE could do is cite specific examples of irresponsible coverage.

Offhand I seem to recall the US press fawning like a bunch of tipsy society gossips over a--err, "presidentially"-stained dress.

Last fall, a Chinese news agency that inadvertently picked up an Onion item as a serious news report.

The Arab press has no monopoly on bizarre "news," just more of it than the competition.

Jim, my fault for not communicating more clearly -- the NYSE/Al-Jazeera thing had nothing to do with the story on Cheney's daughter.

I honestly don't know the specific issues for revoking Al-Jazeera's priveledges but the reason given was that in the NYSE's judgement they were not responsibly reporting on business news. The NYSE didn't comment on whether or not the rest of Al-Jazeera's reporting was responsible, they (NYSE) merely seemed to imply that there wasn't much value being added by the network's presence to the daily reporting of events at the NYSE.

I honestly don't know more than that -- but I'm sure someone around here has more information. Therefore, I was merely making a tongue-in-cheek statement with regards to the notion that Arab news outlets in general seem to have a tough time sticking to fact.

In this regard Anony-mouse's point is well taken -- in fact, I would also add yesterday's "Vietnamization" of the Iraq conflict by the press to the list of examples of western sensationalism. ie, NY Times, Wash Post, London Times and many others ran stories that basically implied that the sky was falling, the war was over, we lost, Rumsfeld is an idiot, and so forth. In hindsight, I guess one man's sensationalism is another man's reality.

Give the poor human shields a break. They may not get any more publicity (other than that provided by an anonymous grave), and the guy they've been desperately trying to save may well be kibbles and bits, but they still have a nice shot at a Darwin Award. Let 'em go for the gold--regular Iraqi citizens have been having a rough week: they deserve a good laugh. Also, anyone willing to so directly improve the human gene pool by vacating it deserves a moment of respectful silence before the rest of us go on with our lives.

Only slightly OT: How is something a "blogosphere scoop" when other news agencies were already reporting it?

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