For anyone interested in the lawsuit threatened by MEMRI against Professor Juan Cole (Repressive MEMRI on AWC frontpage), there’s both a well-written comprehensive defense and a set of links to other blogs supporting Cole at Abu Aardvark’s place.
In short, if you do decide to take Professor Cole to court over the allegation that you cherry-pick the Arab media to offer a highly warped perspective of Arab discourse, expect to lose. The trial would be exceedingly helpful to the general good of discrediting you by shining light on your translation and selection practices.
Cheerfully yours,
the aardvark
American Amnesia on MEMRI:
MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Organization, hasn’t received attention here at American Amnesia for one simple reason: it’s a compost of specious translations of worst-of-the-worst opinion pieces coming out of the Arabic press. Think of an organization dedicated to translating into Arabic the Jerry Falwells, Bob Jones, and other scraps of ideological detritus bobbing around in our local papers, and you’ve got MEMRI’s mission and net worth.
For those that are unfamiliar with MEMRI, it’s a group of translators whose work poses as a “bridge” to the language gap between the West and the Middle East. The fact that it bridges something is sufficient for most people without knowledge of the language…never mind where it leads you.
I think Yigal Carmon is going to regret SLAPPing this particular hornet’s nest.