Robert Parry: When ‘Independent’ Journalism Meant Something vs. Fareed Zakarias of our time
Generations of eager journalism students, for at least a brief moment in their budding careers—particularly during that golden window after Watergate and before Monica—wanted so desperately to be Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.
No one ever wanted to be Robert Parry. But they should have.
Woodward and Bernstein made their mark in a series of Washington Post stories that eventually brought down President Nixon, even though the average American today couldn’t tell you what Watergate was really about. Nevertheless, the pair were embraced and mythologized by Hollywood and the liberal political establishment, their place in the pantheon, set. Woodward has been particularly successful, carving out a niche as an sanctioned gossip and chronicler of the Washington courtier class. But since “Deep Throat,” the closest he’s come to ripping the lid off anything in any subversive and enduring way is a cup of coffee on the set of Meet the Press. Still, Woodward’s friends at the Weekly Standard, in an oft-repeated panegyric, call him “the best pure reporter of his generation, perhaps ever.”
Not quite. Parry, who died on January 27 after a recent diagnosis of pancreatic cancer at age 68, was also a Boomer reporter who cut his teeth on the biggest scandals in recent memory. As an Associated Press journalist he broke the story of Colonel Oliver North’s involvement in the Iran-Contra affair in 1985. A year before that, he won a George Polk Award for exposing the CIA’s production of an assassination manual for the right-wing contras the Reagan administration was supporting to overthrow the elected leftist government in Nicaragua.
The difference between reporters like Parry and the jaded status seekers of his generation is that Parry never forgot. He never stopped “questioning the Official Story,” and carried a disdain for groupthink and the D.C. media hive that not only lasted a lifetime, but defined his identity. For this he was viewed by his like-minded peers throughout Washington and beyond the Beltway as a journalist of sterling integrity.
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Parry is different than most journalists of our time that are in the pocket of the powerful - whether it be the government or non-government actors. During the post-9/11 America's wars against Iraq and Afghanistan most journalists here in the USA tried to be mouthpieces for the government, being even embedded with the soldiers selling the official lines to justify its illegal wars that were killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. What a travesty of journalism!
And then there are TV journalists like Dr. Fareed Zakaria. The latter is an accomplished writer and creator of the CNN's GPS program. However, I am very disappointed with Fareed's line of journalism. He does not want to rock the boat that has been steady source of income for him. He asks soft questions when it is necessary to ask hard ones, and vice-versa, clearly with a greedy agenda that would shame his illustrious father, Dr. Rafiq Zakaria who's an author of many books, esp. 'Muhammad and the Qur'an'. When the western world was bemused by S. Rushdie's highly offensive novel 'Satanic Verses' - feeding into their age-old prejudice against Islam and its Prophet Muhammad (S), and the Muslim world erupted with protests against the criminal author for his blasphemy and cultural treason someone like Dr. Rafiq had to take us all - away from chaos to un-chaos, provide answers against abuse, and provide arguments against diatribes. And that is what the senior, old man Zakaria did so objectively with integrity - a far cry from Fareed Zakarias of our time!
At the Davos conference Fareed interviewed the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordanian king Abdullah. However, in his GPS program, he had almost an entire show dedicated to Netanyahu but just about five minutes for Abdullah! That says a lot about where younger Zakaria has become so unlike his more illustrious father.
I hope Fareed would learn something from Parry and not the yellow journalists! He has so much power to do so much good, but he is proving himself to be a failed, fake journalist, and an utter disappointment who is afraid to ask tough questions to the powerful politicians like Netanyahu, Modi, Suu Kyi and others who commit heinous crimes against the minorities, and contribute to the unhealthy environment we live in or leave behind for our posterity.
To read the rest of
No one ever wanted to be Robert Parry. But they should have.
Woodward and Bernstein made their mark in a series of Washington Post stories that eventually brought down President Nixon, even though the average American today couldn’t tell you what Watergate was really about. Nevertheless, the pair were embraced and mythologized by Hollywood and the liberal political establishment, their place in the pantheon, set. Woodward has been particularly successful, carving out a niche as an sanctioned gossip and chronicler of the Washington courtier class. But since “Deep Throat,” the closest he’s come to ripping the lid off anything in any subversive and enduring way is a cup of coffee on the set of Meet the Press. Still, Woodward’s friends at the Weekly Standard, in an oft-repeated panegyric, call him “the best pure reporter of his generation, perhaps ever.”
Not quite. Parry, who died on January 27 after a recent diagnosis of pancreatic cancer at age 68, was also a Boomer reporter who cut his teeth on the biggest scandals in recent memory. As an Associated Press journalist he broke the story of Colonel Oliver North’s involvement in the Iran-Contra affair in 1985. A year before that, he won a George Polk Award for exposing the CIA’s production of an assassination manual for the right-wing contras the Reagan administration was supporting to overthrow the elected leftist government in Nicaragua.
The difference between reporters like Parry and the jaded status seekers of his generation is that Parry never forgot. He never stopped “questioning the Official Story,” and carried a disdain for groupthink and the D.C. media hive that not only lasted a lifetime, but defined his identity. For this he was viewed by his like-minded peers throughout Washington and beyond the Beltway as a journalist of sterling integrity.
==========
Parry is different than most journalists of our time that are in the pocket of the powerful - whether it be the government or non-government actors. During the post-9/11 America's wars against Iraq and Afghanistan most journalists here in the USA tried to be mouthpieces for the government, being even embedded with the soldiers selling the official lines to justify its illegal wars that were killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. What a travesty of journalism!
And then there are TV journalists like Dr. Fareed Zakaria. The latter is an accomplished writer and creator of the CNN's GPS program. However, I am very disappointed with Fareed's line of journalism. He does not want to rock the boat that has been steady source of income for him. He asks soft questions when it is necessary to ask hard ones, and vice-versa, clearly with a greedy agenda that would shame his illustrious father, Dr. Rafiq Zakaria who's an author of many books, esp. 'Muhammad and the Qur'an'. When the western world was bemused by S. Rushdie's highly offensive novel 'Satanic Verses' - feeding into their age-old prejudice against Islam and its Prophet Muhammad (S), and the Muslim world erupted with protests against the criminal author for his blasphemy and cultural treason someone like Dr. Rafiq had to take us all - away from chaos to un-chaos, provide answers against abuse, and provide arguments against diatribes. And that is what the senior, old man Zakaria did so objectively with integrity - a far cry from Fareed Zakarias of our time!
At the Davos conference Fareed interviewed the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordanian king Abdullah. However, in his GPS program, he had almost an entire show dedicated to Netanyahu but just about five minutes for Abdullah! That says a lot about where younger Zakaria has become so unlike his more illustrious father.
I hope Fareed would learn something from Parry and not the yellow journalists! He has so much power to do so much good, but he is proving himself to be a failed, fake journalist, and an utter disappointment who is afraid to ask tough questions to the powerful politicians like Netanyahu, Modi, Suu Kyi and others who commit heinous crimes against the minorities, and contribute to the unhealthy environment we live in or leave behind for our posterity.
To read the rest of
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