Rewind: Remember When PBS Praised Qadhafi As An Islamic Hero?
Now that the American consensus holds that Moammar Qadhafi was a vile dictator who few will mourn, it might be time to recall that taxpayer-funded PBS actually aired a documentary series by an Islamic professor that honored Qadhafi as "brilliant." Brent Bozell, then chairing the National Conservative Foundation, led the charge against a series called The Africans that aired in the fall of 1986.
Check out what we ranked as Reason #2 in our Special Report Counting the Reasons to Defund: The 20 Most Memorable Leftist Excesses of Public Broadcasting:
In October 1986, PBS began airing a nine-part series called The Africans, co-produced by the BBC and Washington PBS station WETA. Lynne Cheney, then the chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, got the NEH logo removed from the series in protest of how the producer and narrator, Ali Mazrui, “extols the virtues of Moammar Qaddafi.”
In the show, Mazrui boasted: “Two supreme ideals seem to have inspired Qaddafi’s adventures: to turn Africans and Arabs into masters of their own destiny, and to transform them into major actors on the world stage. Qaddafi is another example of how it is not enough just to stop being pawns in the games of the powerful. We must become global players in our own right.” Asked by reporters if Qaddafi is a terrorist, Mazrui replied, “The man is brilliant, but inclined to be unpredictable in his loyalties.”
Suzanne Weil, then the senior vice president for programming at PBS, told The Washington Post: “I find him absolutely riveting. He is Islamic, and that’s the view he has. He has not a lot of wonderful things to say about the West, but we have wonderful respect for our audiences, and we expect they can see other points of view and compare.” But there were no other points of view in the series.
Asked about the one-sided presentation, then-WETA president Ward Chamberlain Jr. conceded: “The Western world doesn’t come out very well in the series,” but “the Western world shouldn’t come out too well regarding its role in Africa.”
In an article in The New Republic, Charles Krauthammer found the show looked “through a prism of vulgar Marxism, anachronistic economics, and anti-Western resentment.” Mazrui even announced in the series that Karl Marx “was the last of the great Jewish prophets.”
NCF's newsletter Newswatch also reported Mazrui commended Qadhafi for "restoring the credentials of Islam as a global force" by using oil revenues "for the greater glory of Africa as well as Islam." Mazrui excused Qadhafi's support for terrorism: He "supported armed resistance against what he regarded as Western imperialism, but in so doing, he brought upon himself the revenge of the West."
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Comments
And while you're at it (condemning PBS) for saying nice
Submitted by lrgon on Thu, 10/20/2011 - 2:54pm.
things about Gadhafi back in the 80's wouldn't it also be nice to tell your readers that "The Ben Bernanke" was also very, very nice to Gadhafi when Bernanke approved a "discount window" loan to a bank in Tripoli? According to Bloomberg News a bank which Gadhafi partly owned (Arab Banking Corp), received 35 BILLION US dollars during the emergency banking bailout in 08!
Well, if you overlooked that bit of ugly US history here is that story >>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFNQRT6TSxw
Awwwww. Look boys and girls. lrgon lies again.
Submitted by The Vet on Thu, 10/20/2011 - 9:51pm.
Arab Banking Corp., then 29 percent-owned by the Libyan central bank, used its New York branch to get at least 73 loans from the Fed in the 18 months after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed. The largest single loan amount outstanding was $1.2 billion in July 2009, according to the Fed documents.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-01/foreign-banks-tapped-fed-s-life...
29% owned. And yeah, banks never loan each other money ever. First time ever boys and girls. First time ever.
Elect Ron Paul and make him rich as hell!
Are you telling us that the newsman from Bloomberg News
Submitted by lrgon on Fri, 10/21/2011 - 1:13pm.
was mistaken in bringing this to the attention of their viewers? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFNQRT6TSxw
"Foreign banks were the majority recepients of money from the discount window."
Alan Greenspan admits that the Fed is above the law. You probably will find nothing wrong with the Fed being above reproach.
Now since you mention Ron Paul it may interest you to know that he was able to persuade a majority of members of Congress to pass his audit the Fed bill to look into the lending practices of the Fed. (he got 100% of the GOP members of Congress to co-sponsor his audit the Fed bill and 1/3 of the Dems).
The Fed has friends in high places and they gave Ron Paul's bill the royal treatment and barred congress from looking too deeply into the affairs of the central bankers. Even so we are finding out that the FederalReserve cares more about foreign banks having money in their vaults than worrying about things here at home. You no doubt think that's an ok thing for the Fed to do that.
Phweet. Ron Paul. Ron Paul. Ron Paul.
Submitted by The Vet on Fri, 10/21/2011 - 1:18pm.
Phweet. Ron Paul. Ron Paul. Phweet.
Oh look boys and girls. The loon is naming his farts again.
Yes loon, we do take you seriously, honest. Cross the monkeyman heart.
Vet, vet vet you need to
Submitted by lrgon on Fri, 10/21/2011 - 1:33pm.
stop borrowing your talking points from the neighborhood children. Grow up and debate like a vet.
scorecard
Submitted by Free Stinker on Fri, 10/21/2011 - 2:15pm.
The Vet: 15
Troll: 0
/// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 /// خال
Remember when John McCain was praising Gaddafi and promising
Submitted by lrgon on Thu, 10/20/2011 - 4:58pm.
to send him aid to carry on the war on terror? But that was back in 2009 ( a very forgettable year) and Joe Liberman was there in Tripoli with Senator "let keep the war going for a hundred years" McCain saying that Muammar Gaddafi was a fine old chap deserving of more millions of dollars from Uncle Sucker.
Awwwww. Look boys and girls. lrgon lies again.
Submitted by The Vet on Thu, 10/20/2011 - 9:45pm.
“At no point did Senator McCain ever promise to help the Qaddafi regime secure U.S. military assistance. Upon the his return to Washington, there were no follow-up discussions and no action taken by Senator McCain or his staff to provide the Qaddafi regime with C-130s or any other military assistance,” said Rogers. “There has been no greater champion than Senator McCain for Libya’s democratic revolution and for the toppling of the brutal Qaddafi regime.” http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2769773/postsWhat was McCain doing in Libya in 09?
Submitted by lrgon on Fri, 10/21/2011 - 1:49pm.
A U.S. delegation visited Libya in 2009 concluded that the Gadhafi regime was a good U.S. ally in the “War on Terror.”
SOURCES:
POLITICO >>> http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62114.html
DAILY INTEL >>>
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/08/john_mccain_worked_to_arm_qadd.html
DAILY KOS >>>
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/24/1010162/-Wikileaks:-Sens-McCain...
>>http://search.incredimail.com/?q=McCain+in+Libya+in+2009+according+to+wikileaks&lang=english&source=012051022105
“[U.S. Senator Joe] Lieberman called Libya an important ally in the war on terrorism,” one cable stated, describing a meeting between the U.S. delegation and the Libyan regime. Senator John McCain, meanwhile, “assured [Gadhafi’s son] Muatassim that the United States wanted to provide Libya with the equipment it needs for its security.”
You, are in a state of denial if you think that McCain is a friend of liberty. The Libyan "rebels" have al-Qaeda influencing that bunch of rats. McCain is so myopic that he will probably push for aid to the new regime even though al-Qaeda has its fingerprints all over that terror outfit!
The former prisoner turned American ally, known as Abu Sufian Ibrahim Ahmed Hamuda bin Qumu, was captured in Pakistan after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. He wound up in a cell in GITMO but was released. U.S. analysts determined in 2005 that he was a “former member of the[al Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). Here we have an al- Qaeda member and a member of the North African Extremist Network.
American officials including then-CIA boss George Tenet have warned that organizations such as LIFG represent "one of the most immediate threats” to U.S. security. .
Why does the loon keep posting when no one cares?
Submitted by The Vet on Fri, 10/21/2011 - 9:18pm.
I did not read his conspirocrap. Anyone else at all care about this idiot?
That is bizarre.
Submitted by The Vet on Thu, 10/20/2011 - 9:29pm.
That is only six months after the Berlin Disco Bombing when U.S servicemembers were killed by Qadhafi and our retaliatory bombing of Libya.