Maybe They Just Aren't As Used To Rude Reporters As We Are

This is a hoot.

Driving home yesterday, I heard an NPR report on Sudanese security guards "roughing up" an American female reporter when she tried to ask Sudanese President Bashir a question. Defending its own, the NPR report made it sound like this was simply more evidence of Sudanese repression and thuggery. Maybe it was. But a report in today's New York Times casts a whole new light on the incident:

After the [private] meeting [between President Bashir and Secretary Rice], American and Sudanese reporters and photographers were allowed to enter the room to take pictures and observe. Mr. Bashir was telling Ms. Rice about the historical significance of his ancestral home when Andrea Mitchell of NBC News shouted a question to him: "Why should Americans believe your promises" regarding Darfur, when "your government is still supporting the militias?"
Two Sudanese security officers grabbed her from behind and dragged her from the room. Mr. Bashir did not respond to the question or otherwise comment.

So, let's see. Reporters are invited in, not to ask questions, but "to take pictures and observe." The President of Sudan is telling Secretary Rice a story that has significance to him and therefore at least potential significance to Secretary Rice and perhaps the United States. Andrea Mitchell, the chief foreign correspondent for NBC News, is a woman visiting a Muslim country and is there ostensibly to report on the discussions between Secretary Rice and the President. Yet, she is so far uninterested in what the President is actually saying, and so smugly confident of her own moral and cultural superiorty that she not only interrupts but does so by "shouting" at him a "question" that is actually an accusation: "When will you stop beating your wife?" The President ignores her and his guards drag her out of the room.

And the press condemns the guards!?

There may be more to this story than is reported in the Times. But, if the Times report is a fair description of what went on, Ms. Mitchell got exactly what she deserved.

Why is it the American reporters -- not merely the "ambulance chasers" but national correspondents for major news organizations --f eel that they have the right -- nay, even the duty -- to be rude, overbearing, shrill and argumentative. When was the last time you wished there were some "Sudanese Guards" around in this country as you watched some idiot television reporter stick a mike in the face of some target and ask "Why should the American People believe you when everyone knows you are a lying sack of shit?" or "Tell the American People: How does it feel to see your son get hit by a car?"

There are many reasons for the ambivalence Americans fell about the press, but an appalling lack of both manners and good judgment is right up there on the list.