A Blast From the Past

Remember this commercial?

Al Jeezy, Fo' Sheezy

During the early phases of the 2nd Iraq war, I stayed glued to Fox News' television coverage of "Shock and Awe".  The boys and girls down at Fox know exactly who their viewer demographic is and what that demographic likes to see. Fox made sure you had front-row seats to the most organized and beautifully orchestrated display of military whoop-ass since the North Korean army's funky disco party .

But as the war progressed from theater to reality, I tried to get as accurate and as fair of a picture of the war as possible.   So to balance things out, I would gather my news across three news networks:

CNN: "Iraqi resistance encountered during sweep for Saddam loyalists"

BBC: "Coalition forces take heavy fire, yet boldly prevail at Battle of Karbala Gap"

ITAR-TASS: "Americans suffer casualties of man and machine during ambush"

Somewhere in the middle of those realities was the truth.  But if I wanted to be entertained amused tickled, I would browse to Al Jazeera.

Don't get me wrong. The little upstarts from Qatar would regularly bang out some exciting footage.  That Fox clip above was actually from an Al Jazeera camera crew.  They had "feet on the street" in places difficult for Western journalists to enter.

But when it came to even semi-objective journalism, they fell incredibly flat. Their reports read like one of Uday's wet dreams.  I often wonder if it was so much of an ulta-slanted view as it was ineptitude of trusting state-run reports from Arab TV. No matter!  Every sweet press of the 'F5' button would refresh with a new fantasy.  The headlines from the same story that BBC/CNN/TASS reported on would read:

"Americans repelled at Musayib.  Five M1A2 tanks and eight Apache helicopters destroyed. US General Buford Blount II captured by Republican Guard.  Canadian and Polish sniper teams surrender.  Saddam Hussein claims 2 headshots with gold-plated RCP-90!"

Yeah. That was Al Jeezy.

But now, it seems they have grown up. Their coverage of the "Egyptian Youth Revolution" has been honest and introspective. Al Jazeera's live blogging has been timely and fresh.  Their editorials have asked burning questions about the future of the Arab and Islamic world. Of course, Al Jazeera never stopped giving viewers some of the most raw footage of Egypt eating itself.

What caused this change? Who can tell? Perhaps Al Jeezy is growing up. Or, can you only blame America for so much? Maybe it was Hosni the Pimp and Groovy Omar blaming "foreign satellite news stations" for his country's problems.  Whatever the reason, Al Jazeera has become relevant enough to be a bookmark on my browser and a bona fide enemy of the Mubarak regime.

Good stuff, Al Jazeera. They're actually talking about you this time.

3-D images of the sun

Did you guys see this?

Window to Egypt Revisited

I almost forgot...  A PSA for my dear readers:

When whipping the shit out of your opposition on horseback, DON'T SLOW DOWN!!!!!

The perr feller at 0:35 did not follow this advice.

That is all.

Window to Egypt

Wow!  CNN is actually winning the footage game in Egypt.  I'm sitting here watching the DTV "Wall O' News" and got sucked into Anderson Cooper's video from Cairo (shot a few hours before).  The images rival any war footage of the modern era:    Men with bleeding scalps, yelling with an insolent emotion that defies the shock in their eyes.  Limp, lifeless bodies being carried pellmell through the streets...  The surreal images of people fighting amongst the seemingly-indifferent Ramses tank crews.  Years of media overexposure and American violence have left me pretty jaded to most violence that comes through the satellite's airwaves.  But what Ben Wedeman and AC have managed to capture today is absolutely chilling.

Unlike the low tech days of Bernie and Pete huddled under the table while on the telephone in their Baghdad hotel room, crews from the major television networks are covering Cairo at the gritty, chaotic and maddeningly dangerous street level.  The high, wide-angle shots of soon-to-be iconic places like Tahrir square and the October 6th Bridge set the stage of the first few days. Through those shots, we understood that this wasn't a few college students or random faction of the poor.  Like Tunisia days earlier, we were rocked by the staggering masses of Egyptian citizens and emotions on our TV. But today, as the pro- and anti- Mubarak protesters launched petrol bombs and rocks, and even pulled some Ben-Ali Hur shit, it was the shaky, handheld flip-cam footage of the running street battles that painted the petals of Lotus Revolution for the rest of the world.  The bravery of the regular press and amateur "iReporters" are exceeded only by the protesters.  If you haven't seen the bit where Anderson Cooper's crew got punched and nearly mobbed on the way back to their hotel, watch it.

As I watch this, I can't help think about a debate I had at the early part of the 2nd Iraq war.  Back then I was trying (unsuccessfully) to tell my colleague that you can't buy or bring Democracy to a people.  Democracy isn't something you can install by proxy.  Real, true Democracy only comes when the people want it SO BAD that their spirits no longer allow them to stand idly by.  Like the forefathers of our great country, their hunger for independence, freedom and a better tomorrow made them willing to face anything.  Autocratic police, imprisonment, petrol bombs and even death.  Egyptians are dying for change.  Literally.

That kind of Democracy is the real stuff. Instead of the seasonal cloak of nation-building, the threads of democratic values will be part of the new nation's fiber.

If only these brave souls can hold out.