Rachel Maddow states and ask Andrea Mitchell ” For so long we have thought about the center of the potential resolution between the west and the middle east the the whole relationship between the west and the Muslim world we have thought at the center of gravity there being the Israeli Palestinian conflict. I wonder if you sense that the Obama administration still views the center of the gravity in the Muslim world as Israel Palestine? Or ist it possibly the crisis in south Asia the crisis in Pakistan that is starting to really rise in terms of importance in terms of what the Muslim World is paying attention to and what our relationship is with Muslims around the world?

Andrea Mitchell “Oh I think it’s definitely Af/Pak is what they would call it”

SO RACHEL MADDOW IS ASKING ANDREA MITCHELL WHAT “MUSLIMS AROUND THE WORLD” CONSIDER TO BE THE CENTER OF GRAVITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST. ANDREA MITCHELL?

JESUS MARY AND JOSEPH RACHEL MADDOW YOU MIGHT CONSIDER ASKING SOME MUSLIMS THAT QUESTION….NOT ANDREA MITCHELL.

GEEZ I THOUGHT RACHEL WAS MORE ON TOP OF IT. Pathetic person to ask that question

Andrea goes on to take this opportunity to share her extremely lopsided views on the I/P conflict. Rachel does not call her out on it just goes along with the lopsided perspective that Andrea spews. I expected more out of Rachel

Kind of drawing from Ed Psych research, but Mitchell — like all of us — is a creature of her background and experience. To her credit, she worked hard and broke down some social and employment barriers, and hat’s off to her for that. She does have a long history, and that also has a tremendous value IMHO.

The problem is that it’s not THE best framework for what appears to be a shifting paradigm.

If you follow BBC, or even CNN, they have a much better mix of their own reporters + locals.
BBC probably has reporters who speak almost every language on the planet (well, except Basque and some kinds of Eskimo and some other lower-population languages).

But in a ‘global environment’, I don’t know WTF a company like MSNBC is thinking if they don’t have reporters who are fluent in Pashtun, fluent in Bengali, fluent in Arabic, etc, etc. It’s simple common sense; as an Austrian friend once observed, he felt that he’d finally started to crack English when he ‘got’ his first American joke. We get bad information when we don’t have people who understand the CULTURE.

Smart companies understand this.
Yes, we’re an American audience, but in a world where Al Gore can produce a 7/7/07 concert on 5 continents, don’t you think it would make sense for MSNBC to start rattling around to find an Egyptian reporter to give that perspective, a Lebanese ’stringer’, etc?

I tell you — sometimes I think Lobe at IPS is about the best guy around.
And Ben Lando at Iraq Oil Report.

No slam at Mitchell, but I just think the quality of information coming from a reporter ‘on the plane’ with the Sec of State has extremely limited value when the economic, political, cultural stakes are so high.

Well, lucky for MSNBC that I’m not a producer and have no pull their, eh?

But the Christian Science Monitor has out-reported just about everyone else, and on a shoestring, for as long as I’ve been following news. Although Nicholas Kristoff has that kind of vibe… ‘under the skin’, so to speak. Humble. Curious. Focused on the practical problems of daily life.

Andrea, no matter how hard she works, or how good she is, can’t provide that angle.
Engel, OTOH, showed how bogged down the heavy US military vehicles are — good reporting.

(I have this odd belief that good reporters are like really good researchers; they kind of look ’sideways’ at things. Maddow certainly has that gift.)

I’m really sorry.
Will check facts on such serious things before commenting next time.
Meanwhile, thanks very much for cleaning up my mess!

(…sigh…)

#67/Maddog/EW Really like thinking about that
#82 Bmaz…so funny

#132 Reader of Tea Leaves. “Abrams “analysis” on why there can’t be Peace in the Middle East”
Andrea Mitchell sure did her best to undermine the importance of resolving the I/P conflict the other day during one of her reports about Hillary’s trip to Israel. Andrea was on the Rachel Maddow show and Rachel pointed out that resolving this conflict seemed to be critical in the middle east. Andrea completely ran around Rachel’s question and went to the Afghanistan/Pakistan issue. Unable to link that Rachel/ Andrea interview from this computer but I believe it is a You tube. Mitchell was acting like a Rep for Israel instead of a reporter (what else is new?)

What the hell is with Pelosi’s false statement that this proves that NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW hogwash. This is a start but many of us are waiting for Pelosi, Leahy, Feingold, Conyers, etc to hold those responsible for the “PACK OF LIES” (alleged WMD’s in Iraq) to be held accountable. But hell maybe Pelosi, Leahy, Whitehouse etc have forgotten that 4500 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi’s are DEAD DEAD DEAD due to this false intelligence. Maybe they have forgotten…sure seems to be so.

As long as Feith, Wurmser, Cheney, and all the rest who created. cherry picked and then crammed the false intelligence down the throats of Americans have not been held accountable that line ‘NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW” rings hollow

ABC and Dan Rather at CBS got them too.

But you can’t argue it was totally liberal–the NYPOst got one too.

And then, of course, there’s Judy’s fake anthrax.

They really are saying that? I guess so, since the SCOTUSblog post says “The government’s reply brief, like its initial motion to dismiss, did not give such assurances.” But did they explicitly mention returning him to the brig if he’s found not guilty?

That’s just bizarre. How does the Obama administration expect to be given credit for restoring the rule of law (because of moving the case into civilian criminal court) if they aren’t willing to risk al-Marri being freed? How could a trial be anything but a sham if the only, and predetermined, outcome is the defendant’s imprisonment?

Not mailed to any Republicans, nor to any of the wingnut media as far as I am aware.