Something's going very wrong with the Tunisian revolution

[fpb]

Italy's southern islands are being flooded with Tunisian refugees - the biggest wave in years. Why did nobody in the international media - including Italy's, mind you - keep their eyes on Tunisia once Ben Ali had left?

Comments

[starshipcat.livejournal.com]

Because far too many people assume that, once the bad dictator's run out of office, it's Happily Ever After time, just like in stories.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I agree. It is interesting that, in spite of increasing professionalization, the journalistic profession has become more stupid and incompetent than it has ever been. Once newspapers hired anyone who came in off the streets and could bring in a story (the grammar would be fixed by the rewrite man) and you got the Chestertons, the Menckens, the Peglers, the Ernie Pyles, the Dorothy Thompsons, the George Orwells. Now you have journalism degrees, and you have the people who never heard of following up on a big story.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Well, you quote the names that remain today. There were as many hacks at the time, their words didn't pass to posterity. (Except Walter Durrante's.)

Still, point. I was punditing yesterday on France 24 and the channel's ineffable reporter in Cairo was babbling about how the Egyptian army taking over was so reassuring, the army was loved by all, etc. Erm. Have my doubts on that one...

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Look, present company excluded, can you point me to any British or American newspaperperson of today who could stand up against that lot? (And I haven't mentioned Beachcomber, Keith Waterhouse, Bernard Levin, Walter Lippman, etc etc? Yes, it was not long ago, actually. As for the French press, you yourself said harder things about it than anything I have to say about the Anglo-Saxon and Italian lot. I have actually seen the Italian press degenerate, in a quarter of a century, from a campaigning and constructive part of society to a prostituted and mendacious mob of bought-and-paid-for party hacks. I won't even get into what my German friend The Editrix has to say about standars across the Rhine.... Well, in short, thank God for Matt Drudge.

[affablestranger.livejournal.com]

They took their eyes of Tunisia because it was no longer a story for them. Then Egypt and elsewhere became the stories. They'll fade away soon as well, except for Egypt. There's too much money in oil, the Suez Canal, and Israel's national security interests for it to be ignored.