This interview was recorded during the height of the recent Israeli attack on Hezbollah and Lebanon. It begins as an analysis of the Israeli-Lebanon relationship and the reasons for the latest crisis, but this conversation is ultimately about something much broader and more controversial. Both the interviewee, journalist Charlie Glass, and host George Kenney, a former U.S. foreign serviceman, offer a sharp critique of Israel's policies and of U.S. support for the Jewish Sate. Kenney calls the Israeli bombardment of Hezbollah, after its kidnapping of Israeli soldiers and the firing of rockets into Israel, outrageous. Glass sums up Israeli policy since the earliest days of Zionism this way: "More land, fewer Arabs." The two men agree that Israel has gotten away with unjust policies toward the Palestinian people for decades thanks to the unquestioning support of the U.S. government and to the systematic failure of the mainstream U.S. news media to tell the Middle East story accurately.
It would be easy to dismiss this as a one-sided rant by two guys with a common ax to grind. Too easy. Glass was the Chief Middle East Correspondent from 1983 to 1993, among other mainstream reporting jobs. Kenney was a tenured, career State Department official who resigned in 1991 over U.S. policies in Yugoslovia. Their perspectives on the Middle East conflict, especially Glass's, whether fair or not, come across as sincere and based on years of close observation of the facts on the ground.
It's unfortunate, in the end, that Kenney doesn't adopt a more neutral host's posture. I understand that Kenney has created an online opinion-based program and he's not trying to be Robert Siegel, but there's a cost. If he challenged Glass from time to time and avoided pitching in his own opinions and saying things like, "I think you're right," more public radio stations could justify running an interview like this. On just about any station it's legitimate to air the strong opinions of a guest; when the host joins in, that's another matter. As it is, the interview should be of interest to stations that are comfortable with a political slant. For those stations this program will remain timely for quite awhile.
Review of Bombarded By Abominable Lies
John Biewen
Posted on September 04, 2006 at 01:29 PM
This interview was recorded during the height of the recent Israeli attack on Hezbollah and Lebanon. It begins as an analysis of the Israeli-Lebanon relationship and the reasons for the latest crisis, but this conversation is ultimately about something much broader and more controversial. Both the interviewee, journalist Charlie Glass, and host George Kenney, a former U.S. foreign serviceman, offer a sharp critique of Israel's policies and of U.S. support for the Jewish Sate. Kenney calls the Israeli bombardment of Hezbollah, after its kidnapping of Israeli soldiers and the firing of rockets into Israel, outrageous. Glass sums up Israeli policy since the earliest days of Zionism this way: "More land, fewer Arabs." The two men agree that Israel has gotten away with unjust policies toward the Palestinian people for decades thanks to the unquestioning support of the U.S. government and to the systematic failure of the mainstream U.S. news media to tell the Middle East story accurately.
It would be easy to dismiss this as a one-sided rant by two guys with a common ax to grind. Too easy. Glass was the Chief Middle East Correspondent from 1983 to 1993, among other mainstream reporting jobs. Kenney was a tenured, career State Department official who resigned in 1991 over U.S. policies in Yugoslovia. Their perspectives on the Middle East conflict, especially Glass's, whether fair or not, come across as sincere and based on years of close observation of the facts on the ground.
It's unfortunate, in the end, that Kenney doesn't adopt a more neutral host's posture. I understand that Kenney has created an online opinion-based program and he's not trying to be Robert Siegel, but there's a cost. If he challenged Glass from time to time and avoided pitching in his own opinions and saying things like, "I think you're right," more public radio stations could justify running an interview like this. On just about any station it's legitimate to air the strong opinions of a guest; when the host joins in, that's another matter. As it is, the interview should be of interest to stations that are comfortable with a political slant. For those stations this program will remain timely for quite awhile.