Stateside With Rosalea: All The Olds (Part 2)

::Ahmadi-Nejad visit, September 24::

My three means of covering this were C-SPAN radio’s broadcast of the phone-ins to Washington Journal early that morning; the National Press Club’s live webcast of the Iranian president’s appearance, via video, at their Newsmaker luncheon; and the C-SPAN webcast of his appearance at Columbia University.

The guest on Washington Journal was John Coatsworth, Acting Dean of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. The format for call-ins to the program, which is an early-morning TV show, is that there are three phone lines, designated Democrat, Republican, and Independent. Sometimes the show host says which line the caller used; sometimes not.

[Forgive the intrusion of an opinion here, but splitting callers up that way just reinforces the current unhealthy polarization of American politics. Why not use instead For, Against, Other, and if callers want to say their political affiliation as well as their geographic location, it’s up to them. Party politics shouldn’t be dictating people’s opinions; in a true democracy, the reverse is the case.]

Coatsworth graciously and effectively responded to callers opinions that included the following:
“Since you’re rolling out the red carpet for this terrorist, would you also roll it out for President Bush?”
In reference to the media uproar about Ahmadi-Nejad’s visit: “I’m ashamed of this country. I support what Columbia University is doing.”
From a US-based Iranian calling on behalf of the Coalition of Opposition Groups: “He’s not the real leader… what he says is made more courteous by his interpreter.”
From the mother of a former Columbia journalism school student: “Jews own the media outlets, that’s why there’s such an outcry.”
From California: “We should show him more of America.”
From Utah: “Middle America sees your side of the country as left-leaning—banning the ROTC, Donald Rumsfeld.”
An ex-pat Jamaican: “A lot of people have their own agenda and demonize leaders and then others jump on the bandwagon.”

The Newsmaker luncheon at the National Press Club involves folks paying about $28 a head for a set menu lunch served at tables on the floor of the venue, while certain members of the press get to sit at the “top table” that is on a riser at one end, with a lectern in the middle from which the newsmaker gives their speech. The link-up with Ahmadi-Nejad outside the UN was the first video Newsmaker event in the NPC’s 100-year history. It was carried live on national television—on some networks with instrusive commentary—and also webcast.

In politics, as in real estate, location is everything. The Iranian President was filmed standing outside with the United Nations in the background. Just so you know what message that sent even before he opened his mouth, the biggest applause Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee got at the National Rifle Association’s conference the week before was for imagining the land on which the UN is built “breaking off and floating away down the East River.” There is a huge—usually conservative-voting—body of opinion in the US that the UN does nothing but waste money and thwart America’s good intentions around the world.

Although you wouldn’t think so from the sound bites that ended up being used in the media, these are some of the things Ahmadi-Nejad spoke of, as noted on my Mylo texting gizmo: “the right path is the path of piety. lies have nothing to do with the divine beauty of man. lies and deceits are a form of oppression.” champions “the rights, needs, and dignity of mankind” moves on to tell the media its role can “either be the voices of the prophets or lowering moral standards.”

His appearance at Columbia University is also carried live on major networks and on C-SPAN radio. Here’s some of what struck me about the Iranian President’s visit to Columbia University, again as texted:

lee bollinger calling him a petty tyrant and listing all the things he's done wrong and insulting him twenty times. coatsworth just said, thanks, lee, and introduced his excellency. a-n says that boll took up as much time as he had been given and was unfriendly. however, he'll ignore the insults and address the subject he wants to address: dignity of scientists and scholars should be protected.

human instinct tends towards eternal discovery of the truth. wisdom and knowledge were god's original gift to adam. science means illumination. science is a divine gift and the heart is where it lives. purity of spirit and good behaviour come from science. there are selfish scholars who don't abide by the truth and the illumination of science. wrongdoers reveal only a part of the reality and hide the rest.

During qn time: “i was invited here, i'm your guest. in iran, we treat guests with respect.” “selfishness, self-absorption, pessimism, are these good things in a country that seeks to [rule]?” “if you're on your fifth generation of atomic bombs, who are you to challenge people who want nuclear technology for peaceful purposes?” thanks to the audience: “i invite the students and faculty to come to iran, to whichever of the 400 universities.”

Part way through the Columbia event, I have to move into the briefing room at the Foreign Press Center for a video linkup with a State Department official in New York talking about Secretary Rice’s plans for her week meeting world leaders at the UN. It’s explained to me that it’s a one-way only link, so I won’t be able to ask questions. I continue with the earplug in one ear listening to Ahmadi-Nejad, texting merrily away what he says, while I also watch and listen to the State Dept briefing in NY.

There is one mention of Ahmadi-Nejad at the end of that briefing and I record it as: “he's confrontational and aggressive. his history speaks for itself. we ask that he give a measure of the freedom he witnessed at columbia today to the people of iran.”

http://fpc.state.gov/fpc/92718.htm

The following night, on PBS’s Newshour with Jim Lehrer, in a discussion about the Iranian President’s visit, an adjunct professor at Columbia, Gary Sick, made the following comment regarding the US’s misunderstanding of the political situation in Iran: “Politics in Iran is not played like American football; it's played like chess.”

rosalea.barker@gmail.com

--PEACE—

© Scoop Media