NOT SURPRISED: A THREAD (cc: the entire media industry but esp the enablers @nytimes )
RCMP arrests ‘Abu Huzayfah’ for allegedly faking his past with ISIS | Globalnews.ca globalnews.ca/news/7350363/r…
RCMP arrests ‘Abu Huzayfah’ for allegedly faking his past with ISIS | Globalnews.ca globalnews.ca/news/7350363/r…
because i belong to an industry that is remarkably not self-reflective, i often have to assign my students in int'l reporting & cross cultural journalism criticisms from other disciplines -ie literature, film, art et al -- that also take on representations of other peoples
after an entire semester in intro to int'l reporting, after which we break down US nationalism & how it hands Americans a ready made language (made by the CIA in collusion w/US universities/think tanks etc ever since post WW2 era) w/which to rationalize US policy abroad and
how that acts on US foreign corespondents as Americans first & then second, as journalists and how our industry then perpetuates the racist narratives that both enable apocalyptic US policy abroad (while often also winning awards , praise, and editor enabled immunity)
THEN, i finally assign Edward Said & other cultural critics. This puts me in the minority, I know.Others assign the kind of aforementioned prize winning work that tells how what happens in Palestine, Iraq, Syria et al is abt Islam. Centuries old theology has determined today
They tell you you have to understand Ali, the Koran and a gazillion other things to understand why Palestinians can't love being occupied; why Iraqis can't build a viable state after the world's only superpower decimates it; why French men hate a racist "satirical" magazine etc
Said instead tells my students what one needs to gain knowledge abt others is common sense and critical assessment which is available to anyone, he says. But apparently not to NYT editors & reporters so blinded by racist narratives that they ignore what was obv to many
this industry is so unable to be self-reflective that the reporter behind the Caliphate & several stories from the last several years where she has recounted w/breathless aroused prose that Arabic was spoken, that Muslim verses were invoked, that traditional clothing was worn etc
says w/apparently no self awareness in response to the arrest: "“His social media alone in an American setting would likely be enough for a material support of terrorism charge,” Rukmini Callimachi wrote."
LET ME SPELL THIS OUT FOR YOU:
LET ME SPELL THIS OUT FOR YOU:
the utter embrace of Islamophobia paired with utter eschewing of COMMON SENSE that allows the material support law is also what allows for the sort of "journalism" that has been peddled here. MEANWHILE
we have actual white supremacists running for office, or occupying the WH, suppressing findings from their own agencies abt that kind of domestic terrorism
i hate that i have to spend so much time responding to work that has been PATENTLY problematic from its start. & i'm talking about when it first got on my radar over 5 yrs ago.Singularly obsessed people unable to be self aware or even remotely critically minded are one thing.BUT
an entire paper/masthead repeatedly standing behind them, enabling them.... not gonna age well. FIN
Well, @ErikWemple takes a stab and questions not only the journalism but the weak response that the podcast presented doubts washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
“When Abu Huzayfah explains some wrinkles in his story, the host jumps in to declare that they track with her reporting.” 
Something to note - many Arabic speaking and in fact Arab (or Arab origin) journalists/academics/experts (many of them women too) have been ringing alarm bells for years. Their concerns were not treated as having much weight. To be considered
New from @ErikWemple -but yet again not answering (or perhaps not asking) why this was all enabled to begin with- despite misgivings by other NYT journalists if nothing else (like ofc they ignore the Arabs questioning) washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Also not asked or mentioned - how much money $$$ did the Caliphate (ie an exercise in Islamophobic and sensationalized journalism) make for the paper?
Again,many warning signs were flashing red.Many criticisms were expressed.A lot of them by Arabic speaking or Arab journos/academics/experts.NYT dismissed them.Reporter responded like a bully, trying to delegitimize many — NB w/protection from on high trib.al/OYV52Dh
The reason to ask for accountability from on high is bc in a time when POTUS/Putin et al are trying to delegitimize the media,the industry doesn’t need to be self inflicting wounds.Folks want to tear down other great NYT reporting from Trump taxes to 1619 Project.Why assist?
This is a bit more thorough. And damning- Editors were aware of all the concerns. thedailybeast.com/james-foleys-f…
Looks like everyone is getting in on this now. newrepublic.com/article/159561…
Key point
Wow this by @sahelblog is brutal and the kind of media criticism we needed years ago on this work and the genre sahelblog.wordpress.com/2020/10/02/ruk…
Sadly many foreign correspondents use the work and insights of accomplished local journalists and then call them “my fixer”- that’s an industry problem. Gross
Yes the slandering of the beautiful Arabic language...
Yes these kinds of relationships are what Said was talking about almost FORTY (40!!) years ago in “Covering Islam”
Word.
Wow. Thx for confirming what many been saying.A reporter who pathologizes religion, who seems to think U can inherit an ISIS gene is incapable of reporting this in any way that actually provides meaningful knowledge.The salacious might make for good podcasts but little else
And let me add that the pushback would come in part from a discussion in #Canada that was poisoned by her very reporting which has been proven to be based on a hoax. 🤦🏻♀️
Another by @ErikWemple washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Amen. While the journalism will ultimately unravel bc of the sourcing issues (hoaxes and falsities) the ethics of harassing victims and families should be equally discussed
https://twitter.com/se_parkinson/status/1311762858661883905
ok so this is a bit meta, well on a lot of levels, but @benyt has weighed in on Caliphate-gate, w/a quote from me. also, wow, did he work hard on this. #Syria #Iraq nytimes.com/2020/10/11/bus…
He had a lot of ground to cover but this is why problem is bigger than journalists/journalism.The simplistic ANDinaccurate pathologizing of culture&religion doesn’t just misdirect/quash journalists’ (&editors’)common sense, but also that of listeners.W/o that hostility, contd⬇️
...W/o that hostility, normal alarm bells would have been going off...
😱 Shoumali said he came away from the experience alarmed by her methods.“With Rukmini, it felt like the story was pre-reported in her head and she was looking for someone to tell her what she already believed, what she thought would be a great story,”
thanks @KaramShoumali for speaking up
Inside the NY Times Probes Threatening a Star Reporter’s Career thedailybeast.com/inside-the-ny-… via @thedailybeast
When the investigation was announced there were 3 questions i and others wondered about: 1) was she too big to fail? 2) Would she be scapegoated as sole person responsible 3) would there be any kind of real reckoning?
Today we got answers. 1) apparently yes, too big to fail. As per NYT own reporting, other reporters/experts consistently raised concerns abt the reporting going back years. While she will no longer cover terrorism, she remains. The editor’s note maintains she is a “fine reporter”
2) not really scapegoated. Also, while a lack of editorial oversight is invoked, it’s vague, framed as a failure of a usually functioning standard bearer or bc editors weren’t experts on terrorism. But
As per NYT own reporting, folks repeatedly flagged the reporting to editors. There *was* oversight, they just didn’t see a problem. (Moreover editors can’t be experts on every topic they edit.) the inability to see the problem is the bigger problem and that brings us to 3)
Wait first let me add, having an editor versed in terrorism-a suggested solution— could make it even worse, bc “terrorism experts” often have the same problem/blind spots as terrorism reporters. Which also have trickled (well more like flooded down) into population at large
So no real reckoning. Sneaking in retroactively editors’ notes to old articles is hardly really facing the music. It’s also clear they didn’t ask themselves *why* the “hoax” worked or *why* they dismissed so easily all the red flags raised by others. I’ve said this before but
Islamophobia & racism against Arabs is real- these are needed to dehumanize the people that belong to these groups to justify decades of USA foreign policy that has brought death and destruction into their lives. We’re all so steeped in it that patently problematic reporting
Is not only NOT caught, it’s ELEVATED. any real reckoning has to start there, to start with an examination of the biases we have when we look at these peoples and ask ourselves, how is this impacting how I am reporting, the questions I am asking, the answers I am hearing
As an aside, remember for Syrians Iraqis ISIS has been a plague,not a way to a Pulitzer or a Polk. The giddiness/twitter threads w/which violent attacks were greeted,the breathless reporting,the kissing of documents etc was utterly vulgar. But taste is personal,we’re all entitled
This interview is just 🤦🏻♀️ - “we fell in love w/the story” - yes but why? Why does one fall in love w a story that requires us to suspend common sense (& ignore bad reporting?) npr.org/2020/12/18/944…
🙋🏻♀️maybe bc we’re so steeped in a racist project we cannot see how blind it makes us,bc um confirmation bias, bc we care more abt the salacious, the prurient &awards than abt understanding how we actually got to a reality that includes ISIS which means looking at factors that
Include very relevant geopolitical & historical context of countries like Iraq & Syria – where ISIS wreaked its havoc. A context that implicates decades of US actions in the region, where there isn’t a clear delineation btw an uninvolved American “us” & a completely alien “them”
All while saying the reporter is “powerful” and “talented” - this is all so tone deaf and will not age well.
So @mikiebarb on this - but honestly nothing sounded like a retraction. See all I said above. Too big to fail.
https://twitter.com/mikiebarb/status/1339941435026665476?s=21
Had a busy day but wanted to circle back to 2 things - 1) NYT line is that there is something abt the audio format that precludes their usual editorial oversight. Huh? Look at this correction snuck today onto this 2014 piece when another fabulist was the main source for a story
This is a print story. So if it’s just an audio problem then what’s explanation here? 2) the note itself says that editors were aware shortly after publication of these probs (2014) and did nothing. Yikes, that kinda undermines the whole tepid wrist slapping we got today no?
Oh my lovely colleague @kallipearl who directs our audio program has spoken specifically to the bizarre blame the medium (audio) argument
https://twitter.com/kallipearl/status/1340024768804900867
On @CNNReliable @Sulliview still singing praises of journalist who gave us Caliphate. Notable that @Sulliview said recently that a lot of the earlier criticism of the journo was sexist. When it was pointed out many of critics were Arab women,she didn’t answer (as far as I know)
& they’re actually dignifying argument that audio was the prob.Folks, critiques abt the work go as far back *at least* to 2014. & they were *the same* critiques.Earlier in this thread see pix of the kinds of corrections being retroactively added to old stories. This is 3cardMonte
Here’s the latest from @ErikWemple - this explains the dissonance so many NYT folks felt btw what they had been told in staff meetings and the Friday roll out washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
The @PulitzerPrizes board has accepted the NYT withdrawal of the ISIS Files & Caliphate and rescinded its designation of the work as a Pulitzer finalist
https://twitter.com/elaheizadi/status/1341501553233047557
More deets on the incest that explains the strange rollout of the findings of the investigation and bolsters the idea that in many ways she was too big to fail - ie a lot of folks implicated in the enabling npr.org/2020/12/24/949…
With the Caliphate fiasco bringing together critically minded journalists who are knowledgeable on media failings vis-a-vis Arabs & Muslims with w/those knowledgeable on audio media failings, I’ve been getting interesting insights. Want to share a quick one below
This interview is w Andy Mills, co-creator of the Daily & Caliphate - some things to note, that go to my point abt unexamined biases when it comes to coverage of Arabs & Muslims being so unexamined/prevalent that multiple levels of checks will ofc fail thepowerofstorytelling.org/interview-andy…
We all grow up w different elements shaping our worldview, and unlike folks at Caliphate, I don’t think those are determined and immutable bc of religious tradition we are raised in.
But I am curious if there was any self reflection/discussion regarding how being raised in Christian evangelical tradition, going to a university in that tradition, and then maybe even being a missionary in Sudan might impact reporting on the Caliphate
Esp when he seems to be aware of how white urban liberals have not been fair to white “countryside” people - so why is it so hard to understand that we all have biases & as journos esp should examine them.
Besides this being questionable use of “trope” this seems to be fundamental problem. Yes this is serious stuff & Yazidi Syrian Iraqi etc lives destroyed are also yes, serious.Not just props in character development of narrator. Maybe instead of dissing (contd)
Expertise, history, context - “BBC” stuff I guess, that’s exactly what is required here.
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