Bio
Lawrence Pintak is the founding dean of The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University. A former CBS News Middle East correspondent, he has been called the foremost chronicler of the interaction between Arab and Western media. His books and articles focus on America's relationship with the Muslim world, the role of the media in shaping global perceptions and government policy, and the future of journalism in a digital/globalized world. Pintak reported on … [Read More...]
Breathing Room: Toward a New Arab Media (Columbia Journalism Review Cover Story)
(May/June 2011) Before there was Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or even Al Jazeera, there was Hama, Syria. It was 1982 and an anti-government protest was put down with ferocious violence. The Syrian government simply destroyed whole sections of the city, leaving at least ten thousand people dead. But the slaughter went unreported in that closed society. [...]
The New Colonialism: Iraq, Iran and the American Regency (Progressive Populist)
(Note from the author: This article was published April 15, 2003 as U.S. forces invaded Iraq. As they withdraw, I thought it would be useful to look back). America is about to become a colonial power. That step will carry with it profound — and potentially disastrous — implications for our long-term relationship with the Islamic [...]
The Opportunity and Peril for the U.S. in Egypt’s Rebirth (The Seattle Times)
(Feb. 4, 2011) “The birth pangs of a new Middle East.” That was how then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described Israeli bombing of Beirut during the 2006 war with the Shiite militia Hezbollah, which left more than 1,000 dead. Arab television juxtaposed that quote with a photo of a newborn baby, torn from its mother’s womb [...]
Pakistan and the GOP Presidential Primary (The Seattle Times)
ISLAMABAD (November 23, 2011) — Mitt Romney said it’s close to being a failed state. Rick Perry argued that it’s not our friend and shouldn’t get American aid. I happened to be in Pakistan as the Republican presidential hopefuls debated relations with this troubled ally. The sound-bite culture of American politics tends to reduce the world [...]
English Lesson: The Moment Has Arrived for Al Jazeera English, Except in the US
[This is a sidebar article to the May/June 2011 cover story, “Breathing Room: Toward a new Arab media,” which you can read here.] Back in November 2008, I skewered Al Jazeera English’s live coverage of election night in the US in an article for CJR.org. “It was a bit like watching a local college TV station try [...]
The Al Jazeera Revolution (ForeignPolicy.com)
(Feb. 2, 2011) As darkness fell on Tahrir Square the night of Feb. 1, a giant makeshift TV screen broadcast Al Jazeera’s live coverage of the Egyptian uprising to the enthusiastic crowd. The channel would later transmit Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s speech, in which he announced that he would not stand for reelection but would [...]
Arab Media Revolution Spreading Change (CNN.com)
(Jan. 31,2011) Egyptians have overcome their fear of the police state. It is a seminal moment in the history of the Arab world’s largest and most influential nation. The upheaval underscores a grim reality for authoritarian regimes the world over: The electronic dam has burst and with it, their ability to control the flow of [...]
POWs, Dead Dictators, and Journalistic Ethics (CJR.org)
(Oct. 27, 2011) The young Iranian prisoner was no more than fourteen, still caked with a thick layer of dust from the battlefield. He was among thousands of old men and young boys being held in an Iraqi POW camp somewhere outside Basrah. It was September 1980, the early weeks of the Iran-Iraq War, and [...]
Tweets from the Revolution (Dateline: Overseas Press Club)
(June 2011) “I was attacked today when I tried to protect some foreigners.” The Facebook message arrived in my inbox early afternoon Pacific time. It was evening in Cairo on Feb. 4, the pivotal “Day of Anger” that would ultimately lead to the downfall of the regime. The young woman who sent the message was a [...]
Reporting the Revolution: The New Voice of Arab Journalism (Laylina Review)
(Jan. 2011) The ouster of Tunisian President Zine El Abdine Ben Ali and the ongoing regional fallout are just the latest examples of the degree to which a media revolution has shifted the power dynamics of the Arab world. Much has already been written about how text messaging, Twitter, blogs and YouTube allowed news of [...]
