In Praise of Ben Wedeman's Reporting
All of us owe the journalists now on the ground in Egypt a sincere debt of gratitude for their excellent reporting in a difficult and tense situation.
We especially should thank CNN’s Senior International Correspondent, Ben Wedeman. What’s noteworthy about Wedeman is that he’s a tough-minded son-of-a-gun who doesn’t try to pretend that he’s somehow removed and detached from the action on the ground.
Of course, this is the perennial journalistic temptation and conceit. Journalists are not part of the news, they tell us; they just report the news.
In fact, this is nonsense. Journalists are an integral part of the news; and their reporting, especially today, has real-world political consequences.
Wedeman clearly knows this and, refreshingly, doesn’t try to pretend otherwise. Thus, he delivers informative and honest news reports such as this:
The looters, many of them, were able to steal weapons from the arsenals of police stations that have been burned down across Cairo.
This morning I had to walk home because there were no taxis on the street. And I walked by party offices… of the ruling party [and] police stations, all of which had been torched. I saw evidence of a lot of looting around the city.
[And so], local people are putting together neighborhood patrols, arming themselves with whatever they can.
In my neighborhood, my wife passed out baseball bats, kitchen knives and clubs to people in the neighborhood… to make sure that the area is protected: Because this is the worry: that the criminal element that didn’t have weapons now have automatic weapons and are roaming the streets of Cairo.
But as I said, it does appear that people are organizing themselves. Calls are going out from the mosques for the young men in the neighborhoods to sort of keep a close eye on what’s going on and to take decisive action if anybody tries to break into any houses, apartment buildings and stores…
I’ve seen this in many places: in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime [and], just a few weeks ago, in Tunisia. Everybody knows their neighbors.
So anybody who is unknown to that neighborhood is not welcomed. They’re basically chased away [and] threatened with clubs and knives and whatnot:
Because nobody is in the mood to have any strangers enter the neighborhood, because they may well have very evil intentions.
I loved hearing this! For once, we have a journalist who acknowledges that he and his wife are a part of the community in which they live and report. And what’s more, he says, he and his wife share a common bond with their neighbors.
Would that all journalists were as honest, candid and forthright as Wedeman. All of us, then, would be better served.
John Guardiano blogs at www.ResoluteCon.Com, and you can follow him on Twitter: @JohnRGuardiano.
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