Blogs May Describe Afghanistan More Honestly Than the News
I ran across this post this afternoon and couldn't resist commenting on the sometimes incredible divide between the news as presented by bloggers versus traditional journalists.
The post, titled "How to Write About Afghanistan" is a satirical look at the remarkably selective perception traditional journalists seem to have of the country. Author Joshua Foust kicks it off with a hard-hitting paragraph:
Always use the word ‘war-torn’ in your title. Subtitles may include the words ‘tribal,’ ‘Taliban,’ ‘corrupt,’ and ‘Sharia.’ Also useful are words such as ‘shuras,’ ‘fighters,’ ‘refugees’ and ‘insurgency.’ Do not distinguish between different ethnic groups with different languages, religions and histories, or regions with different landscapes and livelihoods. If people in Kandahar tell you something, assume people in Kabul feel the same way, and vice versa. Whenever possible, mention Pashtunwali. (Note: you do not need to understand what Pashtunwali is. You get points for mentioning it anyway.)
Perhaps one of the most brilliant sections of the entry is simply a list of "taboo" subjects when writing about Afghanistan, including middle class and secular Afghans, happy marriages between Afghans, references to Afghan intellectuals, honest politicians or entrepreneurs (unless you want them to be president), and successful Afghan feminist advocacy campaigns. He even explains that you should "never, under any circumstances, mention peaceful areas like Bamiyan," pictured below.
It's enough to make you wonder. Given that the author's writing has apparently appeared in such prestigious journalistic institutions as The New York Times, Reuters, The Christian Science Monitor, The Columbia Journalism Review, and World Politics Review, it seems like he would know what he's talking about when it comes to writing about Afghanistan.
From my experience reading about the Middle East in blogs and around the Internet, it's clear this problem exists among bloggers as well. But without a doubt, there are more honest descriptions of Afghanistan to be found on the blogosphere than there are in the crinkly pages of any newspaper. After all, this brilliant post was written on a blog, not in The New York Times.
Read the entire post here.
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