January 4, 2019

New Details Ruin Khashoggi Hero Story

The gruesome murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi shredded the idea that Saudi Arabian royalty should be praised for reforming itself. Princes who chop political opponents into little pieces are not nice people.

The gruesome murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi shredded the idea that Saudi Arabian royalty should be praised for reforming itself. Princes who chop political opponents into little pieces are not nice people. That said, puh-leeze stop it with the adoration of a man who deserves none of it.

Politico ran a gushing headline that read, “Jamal Khashoggi: The Free Thinker Whose Murder Shook the World.” Time magazine named him one of “the Guardians,” the journalistic muckrakers who became its 2018 Person of the Year.

Time’s Karl Vick laid on the praise, and thick, writing: “Khashoggi put his faith in bearing witness. He put it in the field reporting he had done since youth, in the newspaper editorship he was forced out of and in the columns he wrote from lonely exile.”

In Vick’s overwrought prose, Khashoggi was a bold and independent fact-finder. “What irked the kingdom and marked the journalist for death was Khashoggi’s insistence on coming to that conclusion on his own, tempering it with troubling facts and trusting the public to think for itself,” Vick wrote. Holy smokes! But it gets even better: “Such independence is no small thing. It marks the distinction between tyranny and democracy.”

But wait. … How independent was Khashoggi? On Dec. 23, the Washington Post acknowledged a “problematic” arrangement between Khashoggi and the autocrats of Qatar, a nemesis of Saudi Arabia (and the owners of “independent” Al Jazeera). Of course, the Post buried these facts in paragraph 19 on page A-14, in a massive 5,000-word story.

It deserved to be the lede. Text messages between Khashoggi and Maggie Mitchell Salem, an executive at Qatar Foundation International and a former State Department official during the Clinton presidency, show she “at times shaped the columns he submitted to The Washington Post, proposing topics, drafting material and prodding him to take a harder line against the Saudi government.” The Post added, “Khashoggi also appears to have relied on a researcher and translator affiliated with the organization.”

So Khashoggi was railing against one set of authoritarians … with the research assistance and “drafting” and “shaping” of another set. This doesn’t make his ruthless murder any less heinous. But it ought to curtail all the “Free Thinker Just Bearing Witness” rubbish.

The Post claims it was not aware of this little non-independent arrangement. It exploited his death to underline its “Democracy Dies in Darkness” promotional campaigns. It ran a full-page ad in December with a picture of Khashoggi and a candle in front of him and the words “A life is gone. The principles of free expression endure. The Washington Post.” Now it has been made aware … and nothing changes.

There’s nothing like appropriating this victim. In reality, Khashoggi wrote 20 pieces for the Post website from September 2017 to September 2018. The Post published him once in the actual newspaper. It wasn’t that passionately impressed with his opinions before he was killed.

The Khashoggi exploitation continues. NBC just denounced Netflix for bowing to Saudi pressure and removing an episode (in that country) of Muslim leftist Hasan Minhaj’s comedy show, “Patriot Act,” that criticized the Khashoggi murder. There in the NBC story was Karen Attiah, Khashoggi’s (Qatar-ignorant) opinion editor at the Post, proclaiming, “Saudi Arabia right now is acting like a rogue nation, a rogue state that has no respect for the rule of law, for human life and dignity.”

That sounds like a fair comment — except being a dictator in the Middle East is not exactly going “rogue.” It also sounds very much like the talking points the Qatar Foundation would “draft” and “shape” for the “independent” Post to say, even now.

COPYRIGHT 2019 CREATORS.COM

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.