When Networks Collide
Not promoting any particular viewpoint here (at least, not intentionally; the site itself is pretty slanted)... but today, we found an interesting website that essentially monitors middle eastern TV for all manner of anti-American, anti-Zionist, pro-terrorism, or generally idiotic propaganda. The website is at http://www.memritv.org. You can view the original videos with translations subbed in with their odd little version of realplayer or windows media or whatever, or you can read transcripts if that suits you better.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) explores the Middle East through the region's media. MEMRI bridges the language gap which exists between the West and the Middle East, providing timely translations of Arabic and Farsi media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends in the Middle East.
Founded in February 1998 to inform the debate over U.S. policy in the Middle East, MEMRI is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501 (c)3 organization. MEMRI's headquarters is located in Washington, DC with branch offices in Berlin, London, Jerusalem, and Baghdad, and has a project active in Sweden. MEMRI research is translated to English, German, Hebrew, Italian, French, Spanish, and occasionally Turkish and Russian.
MEMRI's TV monitoring center operates 16 hours per day, overseeing every major Arab channel. The center has the in-house capability to translate, subtitle and distribute the segments from Arab TV in real time to Western news channels across the world, effectively "Bridging the Language Gap Between the Middle East and the West."
MEMRI's TV monitoring center focuses on political, cultural, religious, and other developments and debates in the Arab and Muslim world and in Iran.
Some golden clips:
Short clip of a Lebanese cleric insisting the intellectuals among Native Americans spoke Arabic with Columbus
http://switch5.castup.net/frames/20041020_MemriTV_Popup/video_480x360.asp?ClipMediaID=90981&ak=null
Ten-minute cartoon from Iranian TV promoting suicide bombing
http://switch5.castup.net/frames/20041020_MemriTV_Popup/video_480x360.asp?ClipMediaID=87439&ak=null
And loads more that we haven't gotten the chance to watch yet. There are more cartoons if you go to the search area and choose Iran as the country. Amazing stuff.
It’s just amazing how different the world is out there. I mean we wonder why people there go and do suicide bombing it’s because little children see the heroes of their cartoons slaughtered. For the amount of communication and technology there is that allows for the sharing of information it’s amazing the people who make this aren’t found out about and told to stop. I mean this is on their public television and is broadcast all over the country. Plus what they are saying is utterly crazy. They just ramble on with no really idea of what is true and what is false they just want their silly nationalistic ideas all over the place.
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