I just lost all respect for Amir Taheri. His story on Iranian jews being forced to wear yellow stars was false.
When a cause is just and honorable, it should be promoted with honesty. That people like Taheri, with gifts that they could bring to bear in support of worthy causes, resort to dishonesty, is a real tragedy.
UPDATE: The the false yellow stars story was already debated earlier at Dean's World. I don't think Taheri is a "neocon" (whatever definition of that we are using today) but I do think that he's long since left his original approach of rpeorting and analyzing, to outright spinning. Not to some nefarious end; he is a genuine believer in freedom, but unlike Fareed Zakaria, Taheri is not critical enough and allows his desired narrative to drive his journalism rather than the other way around. Ultimately, honesty and factuality is critical to the war on terror and Taheri is reduced to a propaganda tool rather than a positive contributor. I'm simply unable to rely on him.
Thank god for Zakaria's book.
UPDATE 2: More at Dean's World, including a healthy discussion where I debunk the claim that Taheri has been vindicated or has issued a retraction.
2 comments:
Aziz, in regards to some of the flak you're taking over at DW, you might point out that the original "yellow stars" connection was in the print edition of the National Post, which may be seen here (note the photo).
Regarding whether it has been refuted or not, according to this post at Harry's Place, even the Jerusalem Post is saying that the story is false.
And hang in there. Tough gig sometimes at Dean's World.
Oops, here's the corrected first link.
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