On May 8, 2006, MIT Professor Noam Chomsky began an eight-day visit to Lebanon, receiving a hero's wecome. He met with Hezbollah leaders, embraced them and repeated their rhetoric, publicly rejecting their disarming (contrary to UNSC Resolution 1559). Now that the terrorist group has launched a war, he mildly rebukes them as "irresponsible" but continues to wish them well.
As Israel began responding to Hezbollahí¢â‚¬™s cross-border assault, the Associated Press was rewriting the history of conflict between Lebanon and Israelwith a skewed timeline entitled "A look at key events in Lebanon-Israel conflict." Update: A piece dispatched by AP less than a week later does a better job.
Rami Khouri, editor-at-large of Lebanon's Daily Star, and a frequent NPR guest, today on the network actually blamed Ariel Sharon for the rise of Islamism in the Middle East. Perhaps Khouri has never heard of the Wahhabis, or the Saudis and their vast oil wealth, or the Taliban, or Sudan under al-Turabi. That being the case, it's too bad for NPR listeners that the network has heard of Khouri, and invites him on so often.
In a case of apparently blatant manipulation, AFP has removed a key item in a reported list of four U.S. demands being made of Syria in the wake of the Hariri assassination. More than one AFP story omits the call to "stop support for militant groups like Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad."
As the chronicle of AP errors continues, so do the questions about the wire service's commitment to accuracy. A striking geographical error and a bungled description of an Israeli cabinet minister are the latest.
