Comments on: US Ally Maliki & Octavia Nasr Both Praised Fadlallah

By: TGGP

TGGP — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 04:07:52 +0000

Joseph McCarthy investigated government officials he believed to be security risks. But people constantly conflate his activities with the House Unamerican Activities Committee, which was set up in the 40s to harass isolationists (and serve as a weapon by Stalinists against Trotskyites). So if you accuse government officials of failing to do due diligence in protecting the interests of their country, you are closer to the tradition of senator McCarthy than those who try attack private figures for opinions they express.

By: Richard Steven Hack

Richard Steven Hack — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 05:26:59 +0000

You do know the difference between a 140-character tweet and a PR release from a state official, right?

How, exactly, was Nasr supposed to be “nuanced” in 140 characters?

Which is one very excellent reason WHY she should not have been fired, even after she released a longer explanation which WAS nuanced.

Whether she missed the point that Fadhlallah wasn’t precisely the Hizballah “mentor” the neocons accused him of being is not relevant. Fahdlallah DID have SOME connections to Hizballah, and that was how she figured people would see him and perhaps how she thought of him.

By: Richard Steven Hack

Richard Steven Hack — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 05:22:36 +0000

Exactly who called who and when in this instance has been mentioned on several Web sites. It was quite clearly the Israeli Lobby, including Abe Foxman and AIPAC, that got Nasr fired.

Google it.

Nothing she said in her tweet or longer explanation was sufficient to justify firing her. The ONLY reason she was fired was because CNN can’t afford to anger the Israeli Lobby.

By: Juliet Wittman

Juliet Wittman — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 22:09:44 +0000

Does anyone remember Eason Jordan’s being forced to resign from CNN in 2005 after he said that US troops had targeted journalists–this after the death of more than one journalist at our hands (and before the Wikileak video footage)? CNN strikes me as particularly conservative.

By: robinson

robinson — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 18:51:34 +0000

Mr. Cole,

Nasr did not tweet “the same thing” that Maliki said. Maliki offered a nuanced praise of Fadhlallah’s contribution to Shi’a religious and political discourse. Nasr stated she respected him as one of “Hizballah’s giants”. Nasr seems to have missed the point that the entire reason Fadhlallah was widely respected in the arab world and beyond was precisely because he wasn’t “one of Hizballah’s giants”.

That said, I agree that firing her on those grounds was silly and sets a dangerous precedent. The real take away from this is that Twitter is stupid and shouldn’t be used for anything more complex than ‘LOL at Lindsey Lohan’, or things of that nature

By: Maliki, Abdullah Praise Fadlillah - 25 Popular Blogs - Popular Bloggers.com

Maliki, Abdullah Praise Fadlillah - 25 Popular Blogs - Popular Bloggers.com — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 11:04:52 +0000

[...] pledging to follow the example of a man whom they call a terrorist. Here’s Juan Cole’s explanation for this strange discrepancy: The whole conundrum only makes sense from an Israel Lobby point of [...]

By: US: Fallout over Nasr sacking from CNN | The Spy Report

US: Fallout over Nasr sacking from CNN | The Spy Report — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 05:16:18 +0000

[...] the tightrope created by Fadlallah’s death. The American scholar and commentator Juan Cole juxtaposed Nasr’s comments with those of the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, and the alleged lack of reaction from the [...]

By: The Progressive Mind » MuzzleWatch » Octavia Nasr,20-year CNN career ended over a tweet. UK ambassador Frances Guy removes blog post under pressure.

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 20:36:08 +0000

[...] Juan Cole [...]