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Salam Pax on Nightline

29 comments on Salam Pax on Nightline

Salam Pax on Nightline
: I got a few emails alerting me to Salam Pax’ appearance on Nightline tonight, giving Ted Koppel a tour of his Baghdad.

I’ll look forward to it — but I also wish they gotten a tour of a few other bloggers’ Baghdads. More perspectives are what we need.

Tonight Ted Koppel tours a Baghdad that few ever see with a man known around the world by his pseudonym and by his internet diary. Seeing Iraq through the eyes of the Baghdad Blogger–tonight….

Today Ted Koppel got a tour of Baghdad from Salam Pax and saw a Baghdad few western journalists ever see. It was from this vantage point that Nightline is able to show you how Iraqis are coping with the many newfound freedoms and challenges that the war has brought: freedom to open businesses, freedom of religion and freedom of speech.

[Thanks Hylton and Robert]

29 responses to “Salam Pax on Nightline”

  1. anne.elk Avatar
    anne.elk

    Snark! Good snark Jeff!
    Don’t bother congratulating Salam for all his blogging prescience and what it has led to, or for his bravery.
    Don’t bother congratulating Ted for “getting it”.
    But good snark though! Snark! Snark! Jeff! Snark!

  2. Eric Deamer Avatar
    Eric Deamer

    Anne:
    This is over-the-top even by your standards. What exactly was said that was so snarky? Was it “I’ll look forward to it”?

  3. button Avatar
    button

    Prof Sartre is spinning in his grave!
    I still don’t know what your problem is.
    By the way, Rushdie is being featured in the BBC UK online Magazine today. He’s had to circumvent Bombay just now due to more death threats… they’re still making those death threats.
    Now that the Rushdie Fatwa has been privatised (more like a Mafia hit), not a few folks would love to pick up the reward attached to that tempting dangle. Well, that’s too bad because Jeff Jarvis says we need more perspectives ;-)

  4. Robert Cox Avatar
    Robert Cox

    Jeff,
    Thanks for posting the information on Salam Pax. I don’t quite get the snarkiness angle. I think it is great that Koppel and Russert are acknowleding bloggers.
    Robert Cox
    Editor
    thenationaldebate.com

  5. Lola Avatar
    Lola

    Now I’m going to have to find those toothpicks to prop my eyelids open as I watch Nightline.

  6. anne.elk Avatar
    anne.elk

    Snark may have been too strong, sorry about that. (Leaving work.) It certainly was and is, damning Salam with faint praise and fits into the Lileks’ memo that Jeff echoed and echoed.
    Why not just be happy and congratulatory for Salam, for Nightline, for the Iraqi and for the US audience? Why the faint praise?

  7. anne.elk Avatar
    anne.elk

    Hey, have a good weekend all!

  8. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    I’m happy to see that Salam Pax will be featured on Nightline tonight. Salam Pax, however, has done little over the last couple months to receive this attention. I ask anyone here to take a look at the depth of debate and keen intelligence focused on difficult matters that have been brought up the last two months by Zeyad, Alaa, Omar, Ali, Mohammed, AYS, and Sam. There is NO comparison.
    Salam writes just a few words a week, if at all. The Iraqi Bloggers, on the other hand, have almost daily posted lengthy essays, each one tackling a different aspect of life in Iraq. I challenge anyone here to back and look and compare.
    I would also point out that Salam Pax does not have a comments page. All the Iraqi Bloggers do and they check them all the time, often posting comments inside the pages themselves, taking part in the discussion. I myself have learned so much from the Iraqi Bloggers. I have not learned much from Salam Pax.
    Any thoughts?
    *

  9. Jeffrey -- New York Avatar
    Jeffrey — New York

    Sorry, the above post about Salam Pax and the other Iraqi Bloggers is from: Jeffrey — New York.

  10. EB Avatar
    EB

    Thanks for the heads up, I am going to try and make it home in time to catch it… anyone know if there is a late night repeat of Nightline?
    Thanks again for the tip, and I am glad to see Salam Pax get some media attention, and I do realize his blog is more of a personal journal lately, but his writing leading up to the war and during the war was very instructive to me. And I bought several copies of his book to support his efforts, even though you can go read his archives for free.
    And he did get a bunch of others blogging, he gets lots of credit for that. The fact he has gone a separate way from the others just shows it is a personal effort and that every voice is unique and deserves to be heard.

  11. Jeff Jarvis Avatar
    Jeff Jarvis

    Anne: Chill! I mean exactly what I said: I wish they had additional perspectives. We have heard a great deal from Salam. There are now many others with more perspectives — Zeyad, Ays, Omar, River….
    Take a vacation, willya?

  12. Robert Cox Avatar
    Robert Cox

    We track relevent video streaming from the networks in our newsletter each day (free). If the Nightline/Salam Pax Nightline is available we will have it up. The only catch is that ABC News requires RealOne SuperPass ($9.95/mo). The workaround is that there is a 14 day free trial.
    Cheers
    Bob Cox/TND

  13. button Avatar
    button

    Just to be helpful:
    Salam has a somewhat regular gig on the British version of Nightline which is called Newsnight.
    It’s on the BBC website. When Salam has a video clip (usually about 10 minutes), they post the entire program and then sometimes his extracted clip also after the show. It is broadcast over there about 5:30 PM EST.
    It sometimes takes them a while to edit it. And they don’t charge you to watch it. I can’t always decipher the sound track and what is being said very well even when turned all the way up in volume. But it is free.

  14. Angus Jung Avatar
    Angus Jung

    I’m not sure which one is more surprising: Salam Pax appearing on American TV, or the revelation that anne.elk is able to hold down a job.

  15. Jeffrey -- New York Avatar
    Jeffrey — New York

    Just finished watching the Nightline piece. I thought it was good.
    Hey, Sam, why am I a brainwashed fool? You’ve made a claim but haven’t provided any supporting evidence. It’s possible that I may be brainwashed. I just need to know your reasons for thinking why this state of affairs persists, as you allege.
    Let’s debate. I’m waiting.
    *

  16. button Avatar
    button

    Jeffrey in New York:
    You don’t know what you’re talking about. Salam does more than just a few words once in a while.
    He used to have comments and practically sank the poor company.
    ———————-
    Well, I watched Nightline and thought it was a keeper! Yup, thumbs up! Salam was good, Ted was good, and even “Ted’s Closing Thought” was good!
    :-) I am a satisfied Nightline customer!
    But will I respond to Ted’s Closing Thought? Nah, probably not. I don’t think I have anything compelling or special to contribute.
    And a good time was had by all.

  17. button Avatar
    button

    Jeffrey in New York:
    You don’t know what you’re talking about. Salam does more than just a few words once in a while.
    He used to have comments and practically sank the poor company.
    ———————-
    Well, I watched Nightline and thought it was a keeper! Yup, thumbs up! Salam was good, Ted was good, and even “Ted’s Closing Thought” was good!
    :-) I am a satisfied Nightline customer!
    But will I respond to Ted’s Closing Thought? Nah, probably not. I don’t think I have anything compelling or special to contribute.
    And a good time was had by all.

  18. hugh macleod Avatar
    hugh macleod

    Well, all this just confirms again what Jeff has been predicting for months- the blogs are taking over.

  19. Jeffrey -- New York Avatar
    Jeffrey — New York

    Button,
    I really liked the Nightline walkabout with Koppel and Pax. However, I stand by my comments. You need to compare the quantity and quality of Pax’s output the last two months with the other Iraqi Bloggers. Listen, like Jeff says, we need more Iraqi voices. I absolutely agree with that.
    In my estimation, however, the other Iraqi bloggers–Zeyad, Alaa, Omar, Ali, Mohammed, AYS, and Sam–have taken the debate up several levels. They’ve invested much more time and passion and it’s all there for YOU to read. That’s all I ask.
    For example, read Ali’s Dec. 21 essay “We Don’t Need Another Hero” at Iraq the Model–www.iraqthemodel.blogspot.com Salam has not written anything with the urgency and incisiveness as Ali in that essay.
    Again, don’t get me wrong. I enjoy Salam and his position as a Iraqi commentator is secure. Like you, I imagine, I have been reading Dear Raed for a long time and Salam is a master ironist–this came out clearly as he pointed out oddities in Baghdad during his tour with Koppel. Perhaps this is a matter of taste. I appreciate Salam’s irony, but I think the other Iraqi Bloggers have tackled more issues head on and I have profited more.
    Any thoughts?
    *
    *

  20. Jeff Jarvis Avatar
    Jeff Jarvis

    Well said, Jeffrey.

  21. KMK Avatar
    KMK

    ABC has a nice blurb about blogs albeit war blogs but it’s a start.
    http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/SciTech/iraq_warweb030326.html
    ……….These riveting accounts didn’t come from any of the hundreds of mass media reporters traveling throughout Iraq covering the latest war. Instead, they are the accounts of “Salam Pax,” a supposed 29-year old architect living in Baghdad who keeps a Web log, or blog

  22. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Today Dear Raed offers another example of Salam Pax’s sense of the ironic. He shows a picture of the very peculiar barber’s chair that Raed sat in to get his hair cut. The chair–no kidding–looks like a chair that secret police would use to electro-shock prisoners. Salam’s eye for ironic details, I will admit, has not been challenged by the other Iraqi bloggers. Perhaps we’re talking about apples and oranges when we include Salam in the mix.
    One way to read the electro-shock barber’s chair image is as an objective correlative of the mind-set of fear and intimidation that lingers in the Iraqi body politic. Hey, everyone, dust off those old college-freshman interpretive readers, turn to the glossary, refresh yourself on those terms, and let’s analyze Salam Pax’s photos together!
    *

  23. Jeffrey -- New York Avatar
    Jeffrey — New York

    Darn, messed that up again.
    >Today Dear Raed offers . . .
    is by:
    Jeffrey — New York
    *

  24. Michelle Avatar
    Michelle

    When Koppel mentioned Washington’s greatest fear is a Iranian style theocracy and Salam muttered under his breath, “that’s my fear too,” my heart went out to him.

  25. Jeffrey -- New York Avatar
    Jeffrey — New York

    Michelle,
    Have you read Zeyad’s latest blog? He’s in a village outside Basra on a dental internship. He’s not a practicing Muslim, but he feels compelled to fake-pray so people don’t start talking about him. He just learned that the last dentist in the village was killed because he was a Christian. Check out his post.
    It Zeyad’s fear too.
    http://www.healingiraq.blogspot.com
    *

  26. EB Avatar
    EB

    Thanks for the great info on the streaming Nightline Bob cox and Button! I will spread the word to people I know who missed the broadcast version. I have to say it took me two viewings of the show to be able to understand everything Salam said and to average viewers who may not know what sharia (sp?) is or fatwa, it may be even more difficult to comprehend, but I really appreciate Salam’s effort to communicate to English speakers and his humor is his hook.
    About what his blog is, and what it isn’t and why people who want him to be a Wall Street Journal or something, it is HIS PERSONAL site, he is not trying to be everything you want him to be, and I think it is completely unfair to say he is letting people down by not reporting like you want him to.
    It’s like the people who get mad when den beste writes about anime and not politics.
    Long Live Salam Pax.

  27. button Avatar
    button

    INRE: Jeffrey – *Walkabout…*
    I don’t like to compare bloggers. Each blogger has a unique story. I also tend to read the some of the female bloggers.
    Prof. Rosen of PRESSTHINK blog has an interesting essay posted on his blog about Narrative Thread which puts a different perspective on the material covered in a blog.
    There is an anguish among some readers because they don’t feel that Salam Pax has been accorded the same kind of recognition as Salman Rushdie which they feel Salam deserves.
    I look forward to more bloggers and more delightful discoveries.
    Aside from the recent fuss about the potential cancellation of civil law, I have become quite concerned about the safety and wellbeing of the Christian Arabs and other Minority Arabs. Since the Baathists have driven the Jews out, who will they go after and scapegoat next? It may well be the Christians, Bah’ai, Samaritans, Zorastians, et al.
    I feel the Christian and other Minority Arabs are a moderating influence in the Middle East region, and I don’t want them to be expelled. I feel they have a crucial role to play in mediating the civility in the region.
    The issue is triumphalism. In this case, Moslem triumphalism. But we all need to be sensitive to this inclination of Christian, Jewish, or other kinds of triumphalism. It’s my understanding that’s what the UN is supposed to be for. It’s better for people to learn how to talk about it than shoot.

  28. Jeffrey -- New York Avatar
    Jeffrey — New York

    Button,
    I think we are on the same side. Salam Pax is a very different kind of blogger than . . . well, all the other bloggers. He’s a special kind of guy. And I like his irony.
    Yes, we need more Iraqi voices. About comparing bloggers, I understand your discomfort. Why compare when the comparisons may be interpreted as invidious, right? I just wanted to thank the other Iraqi Bloggers for all the hard writing they’ve undertaken over the last two months. The output is amazing, especially Zeyad, Omar, Ali, Mohammed, and Alaa. I just wanted to shine a light on their activities. They have taken every debate head on. It’s pretty amazing.
    *

  29. Michelle Avatar
    Michelle

    Did you see this in today’s NYT’s

    “They’ve been putting up pictures of Sadr, and we’ve been taking them down,” said Lina Aboosi, a third-year architecture student. “We’re not opposing these things because they’re religious. But this is a university, not a mosque.”

    May these courageous individuals hold the line.