Just yesterday I was emailing back and forth with my dad, who lives in Amman, Jordan. At one point I asked him about the reaction in the Arab media to Helen Thomas asking Obama about Mideast (ie, Israeli) nuclear weapons. My dad didn't know what I was talking about. I pointed himto the transcript of Thomas, the long-time White House reporter asking Obama if he knew of a country in the Mideast with nuclear weapons and Obama -- instead of acknowledging Israel's nuclear arsenal -- declining to "speculate". This after all the BS about Iraqi WMDs and continuing dubious drumbeat about Iranian nukes. Anyone paying any attention knows that Israel has a massive nuclear arsenal.
My dad told me that he'd seen no coverage at all of Thomas' question on al-Jazeera and or al-Arabiya or BBC or CNN International and my dad seriously watches them all. I was shocked. Of course, there was virtually no coverage on U.S. media, but I thought there would be substantial coverage of Thomas' question on those networks. I knew from reading As'ad AbuKhalil's "Angry Arab News Service" blog that al-Jazeera was increasingly pro-U.S. government and that al-Arabiya was particularly bad, but still, I was surprised by the lack of coverage of Thomas' crucial question.
Today in the Press Building I happened to bump into Hisham Melham, the D.C. bureau chief of Al-Arabyia, who recently gained much notoriety because he got the first interview with Obama as president. (I first met Hisham in the mid-90s when I did some work that helped expose Fouad Ajami. Hisham interviewed me on the show he hosted at the time for a Lebanese-based station. Since I moved to D.C. eleven years ago, we've mostly been on a shallow "hello" nod basis.)
So I asked Hisham why the story -- Thomas' question and by inference Obama's refusal to acknowledge Israel's nukes -- was ignored by al-Arabiya. Melham dismissed Thomas' question. "I don't like cute questions" he told me as we waited for the elevator. I said it was a crucial question and regardless of what he thinks, why wouldn't al-Arabiya cover it? He continued to be dismissive, telling me how he would have phrased it differently. (It was a ridiculous argument -- something isn't newsworthy because you wouldn't have phrased it the way Thomas did -- it's a partisan stance, not a journalistic one. Thomas asked an important question, Obama refused to acknowledge Israel's massive nuclear arsenal. That is news, particularly to an Arab audience who are the primary -- though not the only -- targets of said nukes.) It was his floor on the elevator by this time and I suggested that maybe he could start asking some tough questions himself.
Indeed it is a real contrast -- how complaint his interview with Obama was with how crucial Thomas' brief opportunity was.
This is how wars happen. Journalists get cozy with politicians so they can maintain "access" so the really tough questions don't get asked -- or are ignored on the rare occasions when they are asked -- so the real problems don't get addressed. It says alot about where Arab governments and media are that they are as susceptible to this as U.S. media.
btw -- I've asked several U.S. officials and politicians similar questions about Israeli nukes, with results similar to Thomas'.: Negroponte, Edwards. I'd recommend this question to anyone. When you see a top government official of either establishment party, ask them about Israel's nukes, if they can't forthrightly acknowledge them, they are up to some serious no good business.
[originally published at husseini.org on Feb. 19, 2009]