On Monday, ABC's World News with Charles Gibson highlighted and seemed to glorify anti-America comments made by a young Egyptian woman, whom the show interviewed as part of a regular series about young people in other countries, who compared the States to a dumb "jock" that in a few years will "die down and burn out, and what's left is a totally useless nation."
The young woman, named Ro'ya, charged: "In the past, if the States was a strong country, it was because it had thinkers, but right now, it's kind of like, it's kind of like a jock, okay -- very powerful, very athletic, in a couple of years, die down and burn out, and what's left is a totally useless nation." Without challenge, Weir added: "Ro'ya says she would only live in America if it would help Americans understand the Arab world. She'd much rather move to Italy..." (An online version of the story can be found at ABCNews.com.) (Transcript follows)
Anchor Gibson seemed to glorify her anti-America feelings as he repeatedly highlighted that aspect of the interview while plugging the segment, as he once said that "when it comes to America, she does not mince words," and later relayed that she "knows just what she wants in a man, and what she thinks of America."
Weir's report aired at the end of the show as part of a regular series called "21 and the World is Yours," each installment of which looks at the life of a 21-year-old who lives in another country. After recounting her social life that is relatively liberal for an Egyptian, though still conservative by American standards, Weir relayed the oppressive nature of Egypt's government, despite its image of being a democracy, before bringing up the many Egyptian Muslims who have turned to radical movements. When Weir asked Ro'ya what young Egyptians think of infamous al-Qaeda terrorists Mohammed Atta and Ayman al-Zawahiri, she defensively charged that "you get radicals in absolutely everywhere and absolutely every religion. ... I mean, come on, don't tell me, don't tell me you don't have, like, cults and radical thinkers in the States."
Without challenging her comparison of violent al-Qaeda terrorists to relatively less dangerous extremist groups in America that are not at war with anyone, Weir then queried about what Ro'ya and other young Egyptians think of America and played her critical comments without challenge.
RO'YA CLIP #1: It's a country that should practice what it preaches. If it's all for a democracy and freedom and all that, and I just, it doesn't do that with other countries, especially countries it gets into or invades. I mean, I'm sorry, but who do you think you are?
RO'YA CLIP #2: In the past, if the States was a strong country, it was because it had thinkers, but right now, it's kind of like, it's kind of like a jock, okay -- very powerful, very athletic, in a couple of years, die down and burn out, and what's left is a totally useless nation.
WEIR: Roya says she would only live in America if it would help Americans understand the Arab world. She'd much rather move to Italy, and she really hopes the world is hers, but only if the world accepts her as she is, veil and all. Bill Weir, ABC News, Cairo.
Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Monday April 14 World News with Charles Gibson on ABC:
CHARLES GIBSON, IN OPENING TEASER: And behind the veil, she parties but doesn't drink, likes boys but doesn't kiss, is Egyptian with strong views about America. Our series "21 and the World is Yours."
...CHARLES GIBSON, BEFORE COMMERCIAL BREAK: And a young Muslim woman mixing fun, friends, and faith. And when it comes to America, she does not mince words. Our series, "21 and the World is Yours." We're back in 75 seconds.
...GIBSON, BEFORE COMMERCIAL BREAK: And next on this special broadcast of World News, Life at 21 in a Muslim country: A young woman who knows just what she wants in a man, and just what she thinks of America. We'll be back in just over a minute.
...BILL WEIR: Political oppression and economic turmoil have driven millions of Ro'ya's peers to become more religious, some to the extreme. Islamist parties, like the Muslim Brotherhood, have grown stronger since the country gave rise to two of the biggest names in al-Qaeda.
WEIR: Ayman al-Zawahiri is an Egyptian. Mohammed Atta was an Egyptian. What do Egyptians your age think of those people?
RO'YA: They're just, they're not us. I mean, I mean, they're just, you get radicals in absolutely everywhere and absolutely every religion. I mean, I mean, come on, don't tell me, don't tell me you don't have, like, cults and radical thinkers in the States.
WEIR: What do you think, what do your friends think of America?
RO'YA: It's a country that should practice what it preaches. If it's all for a democracy and freedom and all that, and I just, it doesn't do that with other countries, especially countries it gets into or invades. I mean, I'm sorry, but who do you think you are?
RO'YA: In the past, if the States was a strong country, it was because it had thinkers, but right now, it's kind of like, it's kind of like a jock, okay -- very powerful, very athletic, in a couple of years, die down and burn out, and what's left is a totally useless nation.
WEIR: Ro'ya says she would only live in America if it would help Americans understand the Arab world. She'd much rather move to Italy, and she really hopes the world is hers, but only if the world accepts her as she is, veil and all. Bill Weir, ABC News, Cairo.


CHARLES GIBSON, IN OPENING TEASER: And behind the veil, she parties but doesn't drink, likes boys but doesn't kiss, is Egyptian with strong views about America. Our series "21 and the World is Yours."












Editor at Large
Comments Policy
Dumb jocks
April 15, 2008 - 09:01 ET by iveseenitallWhile I admit the MSM, who represent us to the world, often act like dumb jocks, we don't need foreigner telling us our failings. We'll take care of our own problems, thankyou. Besides, it is we, not the Egyptians, who suffer most from the ignorant "liberals" who prowl around our turf. As for Gibson, would you really expect an American "jounalist" to defend this nation in a conversation? I don't expect that from Jimmy Carter, Hillary Clinton, Barry Obama, or any other lefty.
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
Didja ever notice (Andy Rooney voice-over)
April 15, 2008 - 09:28 ET by theduck6That whenever you hear some idiot complaining about this country....They're usually IN this country? I have. I've assembled some bobble head dolls of some who've done that through time.
boing boing boing
They say they'd be happier in some other country, but they stay heeerre! Ya' ever wonder whyyyyy? I have. They say they'll leave if someone wins an election and then don't. (boing on Baldwins bobble head) They visit and give credence to every tin horn dictator, communist despot and all around no-good-nik. (Carter's bobble head gets a whack) What the heck give him a couple'a more... boing boing!
This young lady doesn't even rate a booble head doll so we're gonna have to smack her head for real. You ever wanna do thaaaat? I do.
SMAAAAAAAACK!!!
POT CALLING THE KETTLE....
April 15, 2008 - 11:35 ET by SgthulkaATTENTION EGYPTIAN MEDIA - What follows is what a 55 year old Midwestern man thinks of Egypt.
Answer - Not much, if anything. The simple fact of the matter is that your country is a fetid, politically corrupt sewer ( sorry for the insult, those of you involved in the sewage industry).
A country ruled by a dictator where not even simple daily transactions or relationships can take place without "baksheesh". Your culture has been dead for over 2000 years and given the chance, your citizens would leave save for the fact that no other country wants to take them in.
Thank God for Italy
April 15, 2008 - 12:05 ET by jefflebowskiNever thought I'd say it but since Roya would rather be in Italy....THANK GOD FOR ITALY!
Folks, I've always tried to keep an open mind to people from other countries...but I'm starting to feel like my brother, who when asked why he didn't ever want to visit Europe responded, "too many foreigners!"
I really liked the United States when it was populated by Americans!
'Lil Pecker' Gibson...
April 15, 2008 - 09:30 ET by SickofLibsYeah, U.S. is totally useless, except for the 50 billion we've forked over to this prehistoric third world sandpit in the last 25 years. Take away the mummies and what do you have?
Oh please Ro'ya, move to America! Nah, on second, thought, you'd be happier in Sweden, where 'Muslims Rule!', literally.
...in a couple of years,
April 15, 2008 - 10:03 ET by motherbelt...in a
couple of years, die down and burn out, and what's left is a totally
useless nation.
Not even in your wildest dreams!
Start holding your breath, Ro'ya........
Isn't it nice when the rest
April 15, 2008 - 10:07 ET by Free StinkerIsn't it nice when the rest of the world shares their dream of America with us?
/Sarcasm Off
Pledge to not support RINOs ever again!
So whats it going to be?
April 15, 2008 - 10:09 ET by aerovelo...Die by global warming canibalism or burned out jock syndrome...I sure wish the left could make up their mind on the future of America so I could better plan my future.
I was going to buy a few pump action shotguns so I could fend off global warming zombie attacks, but now it appears I will need a red corvette and a comb over if the burned out jock scenario is now in our future.
Ask yourself: Do I want a good paying job, or do I want a government hand out. Its that simple!
All Terrorists from the last 15 years have been....?
April 15, 2008 - 10:11 ET by Melodic_MetalMUSLIM!
"RO'YA: They're just, they're not us. I mean, I mean, they're just, you
get radicals in absolutely everywhere and absolutely every religion. I
mean, I mean, come on, don't tell me, don't tell me you don't have,
like, cults and radical thinkers in the States."
No, actually we DON'T murder school children and video tape be-headings. We also don't have people who's sole purpose in life is to kill as many 'infidels' as possible. When was the last time you heard any huge group call for an entire nations destruction?
And of course, the MSM 'journalist' just lets that skate right on by un challenged. The next time sombody says 'all religions have radicals...' they should be presented with the FACTS that the 'radicals' seem to be the majority in the religion of Islam.
"To beat Violence, You must ignore the focus groups. You must send in the Mossad, turn off the BBC, CNN, and don't look back."
"RO'YA: They're just,
April 15, 2008 - 10:28 ET by motherbelt"RO'YA: They're just, they're not us. I mean, I mean, they're just, you get radicals in absolutely everywhere and absolutely every religion. I mean, I mean, come on, don't tell me, don't tell me you don't have, like, cults and radical thinkers in the States."
They're just, they're not us....
They're just, you get radicals...."
I mean, I mean, come on....
Like, cults and radical thinkers...
Now that's articulate!!
Wow....a Muslim Valley Girl!
mb -- I think that's a Nile
April 15, 2008 - 11:45 ET by Jack Bauermb -- I think that's a Nile Valley Girl?
um, it's not just Muslims my friends...
April 15, 2008 - 14:52 ET by TruthMongerhttp://www.rand.org/publications/randreview/issues/rr.winter98.9/methods.html
Puleese TM
April 15, 2008 - 15:04 ET by bassndude"American Christian Patriot movement, who bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City a month later; "....That was not and american cristian patriot. That was an angry, waco resenting moron. He was not a Christian then, or before. Your really streaching things here, one jew and one milita member? That whole article is fabrication and assumption.
Save a SeAL, club a liberal!!
as is a ton of the
April 15, 2008 - 15:15 ET by TruthMongeras is a ton of the anti-Muslim crap we see here:)
TM, how do you tell a good
April 15, 2008 - 23:38 ET by Dan The Man 2TM, how do you tell a good Muslim from one that wants to kill you?
Nuke em til they glow then shoot em in the dark.
Dan
April 15, 2008 - 23:58 ET by RESTLESS 1The good Muslim is the one overcharging you for a gallon of milk at the corner store.
I know, I know. Sorry.
You people have it all
April 15, 2008 - 10:13 ET by ckc1227You people have it all wrong. We should be more like Cuba, a favorite of the left, who just got cellular service for the first time today(yesterday?), lol.
Ro-'Ya, you ignorant $lut
April 15, 2008 - 10:21 ET by HelenSInteresting how the verbal diarrhea flows about what's wrong with the U.S. and yet in the next breath she's not declaring her intentions to leave and move back to Egypt. Oh no. This little ho wants to move to Italy (where our ally just got re-instated, incidently).
Stupid little sow. Oh, oops. Maybe that will offend her little mooslim sensibilities...
Stupid little heifer.
"Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war" - Shakespeare
if you think our MSM is bad
April 15, 2008 - 14:57 ET by TruthMongerif you think our MSM is bad - these people are brainwashed by way worse - she sounds just like an American liberal...
This kind of "reporting"
April 15, 2008 - 10:36 ET by msh1973This kind of "reporting" makes me want to vomit! I mean it, I am so over the msm making America the villian and taking every opportunity to hunt down people who share their views.
Who does the world turn to when it is in trouble, whether it be from famine, natural disaster or in need of military intervention...you guessed it, America.
I wonder what she'd say...
April 15, 2008 - 10:41 ET by Prester John... if we decided to stop sending Egypt that 2 billion dollars in aid we've been sending them every year since who knows when.
Knows just what she wants in a man
April 15, 2008 - 10:49 ET by YahooWatcherToo bad for Ro'ya that she lives in a country where she doesn't have the freedom to choose a man, or choose anything else in her life because it is already laid out for her in the Koran.
ROYA
April 15, 2008 - 11:12 ET by Melodic_MetalToo bad for her that if she dare defy the Islamic religion, her head gets mailed to her parents. But WE HAVE RADICALS TOO..... Riiiiiight
"To beat Violence, You must ignore the focus groups. You must send in the Mossad, turn off the BBC, CNN, and don't look back."
I made this analogy a while
April 15, 2008 - 11:11 ET by seaniepI made this analogy a while ago, only I added that America was more like the good looking quarterback who also got straight As
its just easier to hate it out of jealousy
you can present these folks with facts about how many great scientific or economic breakthroughs have come out of the middle east in the last, oh 1,000 years (the number is pretty low) and they just come back with "But you don't treat Iraq fair" and that is the end of the conversation
I pray that the US is always seen as a "useless nation" to Islam
April 15, 2008 - 11:20 ET by c5thenWhy? Because that means that we are not usefull in furthering the conquest of the world, do not support the islamo-fascists and support Israel in their right to exist.
I can't help but notice that this muslim woman wants to go live in a country that is 95% Christian.
The day that "politician" became a career choice is the day we started losing the Republic. Let's get it back! Alan Keyes '08.
if we stay Christian we
April 15, 2008 - 14:58 ET by TruthMongerif we stay Christian we will be just fine
if God be for us who can be against us
We are not Christian, we
April 15, 2008 - 23:40 ET by Dan The Man 2We are not Christian, we are secular and God is not for us.
Nuke em til they glow then shoot em in the dark.
Understanding the Arab world?
April 15, 2008 - 11:40 ET by mattmSubjugating women, raping children, spawning terrorism, preaching racist hate all the while living at a third-world standard (except for the wealthy sultans and dictators who rob their people while they blame Israel and America for it)....
I think we understand the Arab world pretty damned well, and it ain't good!
And in case the truth of
April 15, 2008 - 13:40 ET by HelenSAnd in case the truth of what a real hard-core muslim country would be/was like, just watch "Kite Runner" and be nauseated. The taliban is everything this bimbo thinks is so glorious about her dysfunctional and demonic religion.
"Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war" - Shakespeare
Me being sarcastic, as usual...
April 15, 2008 - 12:06 ET by richflanjCHARLIE GIBSON: "And behind the veil"
ME: Better wear that veil, kid. Some offended Muslim might cut your head off if you don"t.
"she parties but doesn't drink"
ME: Don't get caught partying in Islam, especially a female. You shouldn't even be caught outside without a male family member, etc., etc....
"likes boys but doesn't kiss"
ME: Good thing it's the opposite sex, otherwise you'll get hanged in public, al la Iran. We won't even go into the kissing thing and adultry, honor killings.....
"is Egyptian with strong views about America."
ME: Of course, our millions/billions of foreign aid is not a problem....
Our series "21 and the World is Yours."
ME: Or as I like to call it: "21 and they don't know anything, but will express themselves anyway."
RO'YA: They're just, they're not us. I mean, I mean, they're just, you get radicals in absolutely everywhere and absolutely every religion. I mean, I mean, come on, don't tell me, don't tell me you don't have, like, cults and radical thinkers in the States.
ME: Of course,we do. Remember that time those Christian suicide bombers flew the aircraft into the Pyramids? Oh, wait, nope.....
How 'bout the time those Christian warriors beheaded all those Islamic Missionaries? Oops. Wrong again....
RO'YA: It's a country that should practice what it preaches.
ME: Yeah, you're right. All those poor oppressed people we ran over during our rush to occupy Europe in the 1940's, still oppressed by the American jackboots.... And all that free oil we are getting from Iraq, since we began our occupation there.....
If it's all for a democracy and freedom and all that, and I just, it doesn't do that with other countries, especially countries it gets into or invades. I mean, I'm sorry, but who do you think you are?
ME: We are the reason freedom still has a chance in this world. End of story, kid.
Gibson isn't the only
April 15, 2008 - 15:31 ET by motherbeltGibson isn't the only "journalist" who is smitten with Isalm. This is typical of the MSM.
Some time ago, we had a thread here about CNN's report on religion. (God's Warriors). Christiane Amanpour blatantly displayed her admiration for Islam alongside her contempt for Christianity. According to Amanpour, Muslim women bore their restrictions willingly, out of love of Islam; Christian women were forced.
Here is how she described a Muslim woman's (Rehan) practices (emphasis added):
It is a deliberate display of faith, not just covering her head, but swearing off alcohol, praying five times a day, which isn't easy in a typically busy American life...[ ]... Rehan insists that covering up is not a sign of a woman's inferiority, as many Westerners believe, but a sign that Muslim women refuse to be degraded, as she feels they can be in American culture.
When it came to describing the conservative Christian women in Ron Luce's ministry , she had this to say:
On campus, students must follow a strict set of rules.... No
secular music or television. No "R"-rated movies. No alcohol. No drugs.
No dating...[ ]... When I, you know, read that women have to wear
skirts of a certain length, and guys aren't allowed to, you know, go on
the Internet, unsupervised. And I think, you know, totalitarian regimes.
Their bias is so thick you need a machete to cut through it.
How long did Charles Gibson
April 15, 2008 - 12:47 ET by ThisnThatHow long did Charles Gibson look before he found someone to interview who would bash America? If he or anyone else wants to talk to people from other countries, all he would have to do is to show up at a Naturalization ceremony. Lots of foreigners to talk to at those events and he could choose to talk to them before or after they became U.S. citizens.
As for that egyptian girl -- how many people are lined up at Egypt's borders looking to get in and become citizens? How many patents has Egypt's engineers produced in the last 50 years? How many nobel prizes have they won? How many countries automatically turn to Egypt for aid when a natural disaster hits? And who provides security across the Middle East and elsewhere in the world? It's not Egypt, that's for sure. Nor Italy.
___________________________________
If you can read this, thank a teacher. If it is in English, thank a Soldier. - My barber
It's being bombarded with
April 15, 2008 - 13:15 ET by suzycreamcheeseIt's being bombarded with stories like this that perpetuates the myth that the rest of the world hates America. It's just not true. And if America is a dumb jock that's going to burn out and die, then it's taking a lot of other countries with it that depend on America for trade, aid, and protection.
it's true - we are revered
April 15, 2008 - 15:01 ET by TruthMongerit's true - we are revered around the world by the vast majority - the single greatest cause of modern freedom and prosperity all over the place - thanks to continued conservative policy partnered with the US Military - the greatest force for world peace ever created...
much to the MSM's dismay, of course
I reckon if you turn over
April 15, 2008 - 13:59 ET by ConservativeRexI reckon if you turn over enough rocks you'll find what you're looking for. And ABC did. Now, go over to Alexandria, or Cairo and ask any hundreds of peasants you come across if they would like to go to America or even if they thought America would be a desirable place to live and you would have 100% compliance in HELLYA! This little girl has been force fed all kinds of crap, and undoubtedly from a lot of people right here in the USA. She just needs to be steered in the right direction. And the ABC news network isn't the right direction, if you want to learn how to be a good American.
Young people have young memories.
April 15, 2008 - 14:46 ET by IamTinmanPossibly the young lady doesn't remember but I vividly do, the sight of crowds people in Cairo rushing out into the street celebrating the bombing of the twin towers.
Perhaps she has forgotten about her own country whose members are muslim closing their borders to Palestinians along with Jordan and Syria and who only allow the Palestinians enough aid to keep them living in squalor.
Perhaps she has forgotten that her country would be a fragmented lot of dirt poor sheikdoms without the billions of dollars in american aid Egypt has received over the years.
I pity the people of Italy!