Gabriel Elizondo, a Brazil-based correspondent for Al Jazeera, is in the middle of a road trip across the United States, talking to people about the effects of 9/11 on American life. In Texas, Elizondo says he just experienced part of the impact firsthand.
"Ten miles," he wrote Sunday in a blog post. "That's how deep I got into Texas before being asked to leave."
On Friday, Elizondo says, he decided to stop at a high school football game in Booker, Texas, near the Oklahoma border. "What better a setting to immerse one's self into Texas rural life than high school football," he wrote. "I easily imagine sitting in the bleachers, eating a hot dog (or three) and drinking a Coke, talking football (the American kind) with parents and maybe slipping in a little 9/11 if they allow me. It's a no brainer for me. I love this stuff. I'll take this over sitting in a White House press briefing any day of the week."
But after Elizondo introduced himself as a member of Al Jazeera to Booker High's principal, a warm Texas welcome apparently turned cold.
"I don't think anything can wipe that double-wide smile off Mrs. Yauck's face," he wrote. "But my Al Jazeera business card does the job pretty quick."
More from the post:
"So you're from Al Jazeera," Mrs. Yauck says in a sharp tone, still looking down at my card. Looking up at me, she adds quickly, " So what's your spin on this story?"
"I don't have a spin," I say, still smiling to try to ease any sudden tension. "What I told you is exactly what I want to do. Just talk to people, film a bit. That is it. Nothing more. Nothing less."
"But you're with Al Jazeera?"
"Yes," I say proudly, still smiling.
But Mrs. Yauck is again staring down at my business card.
"Our superintendent is here, let me just go talk to him and I'll be right back."
According to Elizondo, the superintendent, Michael Lee, said, "I think it was damn rotten what they did."
"I am sorry, what who did?" I say, not sure exactly if he was calling me rotten, the terrorists rotten, Al Jazeera rotten, or all of the above.
"The people that did this to us," he says back to me with a smirk, still glaring uncomfortably straight at my eyes.
"Well, I think it was bad too," I say. "Well, do you think, sir, we can film a bit of the game and talk to some people here about just that?"
"No. You can't film, you can't take pictures, or interview people."
"OK, can I ask why? And if you allow me can I explain …"
Cut off.
"No, I just expect that you will respect it."
Elizondo says he respected the superintendent's wishes, and left.
I guess I could have snuck back in and secretly filmed with my Blackberry. I could have went back in with a camera rolling and confronted Mr Lee, which would have certainly got the classic shot of him putting his hand in front of the lens of the camera and likely provoked him to call the local sheriff. It would have turned into the largest scandal Booker had likely ever seen. But I quickly decide against it, not wanting to make a mockery of 9/11 just for a cheap TV confrontation trick. That was not my objective going in, and wouldn't be my objective now.
"I want to apologize to you if I came across as disrespectful," Lee wrote in a response on the high school's website. "That certainly was not my intent and is definitely not how I want to represent my community. I do say this with all sincerity."
"I was dealing with several situations in the few minutes prior to the start of the football game, my conversation with you being one," Lee continued. "The most important situation was the fact that two of our elementary children had not arrived at their home. I can assure you that two kids missing is very stressful for an administrator."
But Lee disputed Elizondo's account of the conversation. "You asked me a question about 9/11," he wrote. "I responded to your question. I did not use profanity in my response as indicated in the blog. I do not recall you writing any comments down and verifying them."
More from Lee:
I tried finding you after our other situations were resolved and talk with you more. [...] I would not have changed my mind about allowing you to just drop by and interview people and film our students. We did not have prior notice and we certainly did not have time to verify who you were. Also, I would have asked you not to do those things at a public event, on public property and at a public school function. If you had done these, then the FERPA rights for our students would very well have been violated, especially for the students whose parents have signed papers not allowing the pictures of their children on the web. I do regret however, that you did not return to talk to me more, or "confront" me as you stated in your blog. I think we would have enjoyed a nice conversation. Booker is a community that has accepted diversity for decades, including many different faiths. I am sitting here listening to the music from our annual "Fiesta Night" that celebrates the unification of the many cultures that make up our community.
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06:26 PM
PFF
System Bot
Toddster Member
Posts: 20871 From: Roswell, Georgia Registered: May 2001
The terrorists smiled too...right up til they slit the throats of stewardesses and pilots. I have no problem with the Superintendent politely asking the man to leave. If Al Jazeera wants to improve their reputation by reporting the realities of Islamic Terrorism then they will earn some credibility. But as long as they continue to be a conduit for hate they will continue to be unwelcomed in most places in America...except the White House perhaps.
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06:35 PM
rinselberg Member
Posts: 16118 From: Sunnyvale, CA (USA) Registered: Mar 2010
The news stories are on the left side of the page, and the "reportage" is very mainstream and factual. Stories that come out of the Mideast and other Muslim countries take precedence, but you do see other kinds of news there.
The OpEds are on the right side. The OpEds are about 99 percent far left-wing, anti-U.S., anti-Israel and Arab-centric (to coin a word). As if Muslims/Arabs were the only people on earth..
Say what you will about their OpEds, but at least there is a clear divison on this website between general news reportage and OpEds. If you just look at the news stories, it's not much different than BBC News, CNN or MSNBC. (Of course, even those general news sites are "indigestible" to some of our PFF posters..)
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06:51 PM
htexans1 Member
Posts: 9115 From: Clear Lake City/Houston TX Registered: Sep 2001
Having said that, I actually trust Al-Jazeera to tell the truth more then I do CNN. That is the truth.
I have found some of their stuff to be remarkably free of Bias. Try that with CNN.
If you want a totally different viewpoint, try www.presstv.com The "Iranian news outlet."
Press TV is a joke....not even the Muslim community at large takes them seriously INCLUDING many Iranians. IMHO, Al-Jazeera strives (more often than not) for complete credibility primarily because they are fully aware the entire Western world is expecting them to be otherwise.
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11:29 PM
Sep 7th, 2011
Pyrthian Member
Posts: 29569 From: Detroit, MI Registered: Jul 2002
Gabriel Elizondo, a Brazil-based correspondent for Al Jazeera, is in the middle of a road trip across the United States, talking to people about the effects of 9/11 on American life. In Texas, Elizondo says he just experienced part of the impact firsthand.
He got to find out how a school deals with journalists who don't give them time to verify their credentials. But at least he could spin that as "brown people hate." We may not know the whole truth of exactly what was said, but it seems clear Elizondo didn't get authorization for the filming and interview in advance, otherwise nobody would have been surprised when he arrived and the question of him filming/interviewing would have already been answered.
This was a high school function, which means the superintendent is in charge of minors on private property. I wouldn't be surprised if ANY journalist would be turned away if they didn't have some kind of approval beforehand. Imagine someone showing up at your Podunk USA high school football game from the New York Times asking to interview and film children for an article they're doing with no advance notice at all.
But it'll play out as "Americans hate brown people, LOL! Censorship!!!"
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12:30 PM
2.5 Member
Posts: 43235 From: Southern MN Registered: May 2007
"I don't have a spin," I say, still smiling to try to ease any sudden tension. "What I told you is exactly what I want to do. Just talk to people, film a bit. That is it. Nothing more. Nothing less."
I'd say pretty much all reporters/journalists/networks have a "spin".
I may be missing something too. He wanted to know what they thought about it, they flat out said "I think it was rotten". He is the journalist who wants to know, yet he is shocked when they are looking at him when they say it?
Mixed feelings I guess. Is the big claim that the American public has teh wrong idea about AL Jazeera? Was he going to clear that up in his story then?
This is a school event, the school I would suspect could deny anyone from filming or interviewing on school grounds. This is not a matter of some guy having a right that was somehow denied. But it does show that the issue is tender in the hearts of Americans. What did he expect folks to say, hmm that was a long time ago, but I'm over it. Sure maybe some profiling went on. Thats wasn't what he was looking for? It went on regarding his place of business apparently not his appearances.
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12:53 PM
Pyrthian Member
Posts: 29569 From: Detroit, MI Registered: Jul 2002
/\ oh c'mon you two, if that was Fox News pulling up, they'd be all hamming it up, and you know it.
anyone with a spot of sense know that hearing the words "Al Jazeera" is at the root. May as well have said he was from the Taliban or Al Qaeda. All the same to these "well educated" folk.
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02:11 PM
2.5 Member
Posts: 43235 From: Southern MN Registered: May 2007
/\ oh c'mon you two, if that was Fox News pulling up, they'd be all hamming it up, and you know it.
anyone with a spot of sense know that hearing the words "Al Jazeera" is at the root. May as well have said he was from the Taliban or Al Qaeda. All the same to these "well educated" folk.
"Brought to you by AL Qaeda, the official sponsor of the Al Jazeera 10 o'clock news"
He got to find out how a school deals with journalists who don't give them time to verify their credentials. But at least he could spin that as "brown people hate." We may not know the whole truth of exactly what was said, but it seems clear Elizondo didn't get authorization for the filming and interview in advance, otherwise nobody would have been surprised when he arrived and the question of him filming/interviewing would have already been answered.
This was a high school function, which means the superintendent is in charge of minors on private property. I wouldn't be surprised if ANY journalist would be turned away if they didn't have some kind of approval beforehand. Imagine someone showing up at your Podunk USA high school football game from the New York Times asking to interview and film children for an article they're doing with no advance notice at all.
But it'll play out as "Americans hate brown people, LOL! Censorship!!!"
I agree about the interview part and shooting the film from restricted areas like locker rooms or on the actual field, but i disagree about the 'minors on private property'. If its a public school its not private property and is in fact quite public and i don't see how they can restrict taking pictures from the bleachers, if he wanted to setup his camera there.
Now while i *personally* would not want him on the grounds either, rights and freedoms do not become void just beacuse you don't like the person that wants to exercise it.
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05:08 PM
Formula88 Member
Posts: 53788 From: Raleigh NC Registered: Jan 2001
I agree about the interview part and shooting the film from restricted areas like locker rooms or on the actual field, but i disagree about the 'minors on private property'. If its a public school its not private property and is in fact quite public and i don't see how they can restrict taking pictures from the bleachers, if he wanted to setup his camera there.
Now while i *personally* would not want him on the grounds either, rights and freedoms do not become void just beacuse you don't like the person that wants to exercise it.
Use that public property line sometime when you're on public school property and they ask you to leave. I understand what your saying, but school administration has final authority over what happens on school property because they're charged with the care of minors at school functions. Essentially, the Constitution ends at the border of school property. (that's not much of an exaggeration - it's already been tested in court, and the school's virtually always win)
As a Texan born and raised, I can say that I'm not surprised at all by this. Religious bigots and racists have a comfortable home here, very comfortable.
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10:08 PM
Sep 8th, 2011
2.5 Member
Posts: 43235 From: Southern MN Registered: May 2007
As a Texan born and raised, I can say that I'm not surprised at all by this. Religious bigots and racists have a comfortable home here, very comfortable.
What about what happened makes you think a religious bigot or racist had anything to do with it?
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09:48 AM
Pyrthian Member
Posts: 29569 From: Detroit, MI Registered: Jul 2002
Agree with you 100%. Try that with any major news network.
I'll 3x's this; most all of my reviews, encompassing the past year and a half, have shown me the AJ news reports have been surprisingly fact based and presented fairly.
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09:59 AM
2.5 Member
Posts: 43235 From: Southern MN Registered: May 2007
What about what happened makes you think a religious bigot or racist had anything to do with it?
Seriously! I want to know to. Were there reports of no other Middle Eastern people allowed into the game as well? I thought the story was just about a terrorist supporter being asked to leave because he defends murders.
What other information do you have Jazz about other Muslims being descriminated against here?
[This message has been edited by Toddster (edited 09-08-2011).]
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02:16 PM
PFF
System Bot
2.5 Member
Posts: 43235 From: Southern MN Registered: May 2007
I don't even know if the guy is Muslim or what his ethnic background is. Doesn't matter. I did see at the link this from the school employee:
"I want to apologize to you if I came across as disrespectful," Lee wrote in a response on the high school's website. "That certainly was not my intent and is definitely not how I want to represent my community. I do say this with all sincerity."
"I was dealing with several situations in the few minutes prior to the start of the football game, my conversation with you being one," Lee continued. "The most important situation was the fact that two of our elementary children had not arrived at their home. I can assure you that two kids missing is very stressful for an administrator."
But Lee disputed Elizondo's account of the conversation. "You asked me a question about 9/11," he wrote. "I responded to your question. I did not use profanity in my response as indicated in the blog. I do not recall you writing any comments down and verifying them."
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02:51 PM
2.5 Member
Posts: 43235 From: Southern MN Registered: May 2007
"It looks like to me to be a great misunderstanding. Mr. Elizondo should have given the Booker enough notice that he was interested in visiting their football game, so they can make sure the FERPA-protected children would not be filmed, and Mr. Lee's attitude came across to Mr. Elizondo wrongly."
Use that public property line sometime when you're on public school property and they ask you to leave. I understand what your saying, but school administration has final authority over what happens on school property because they're charged with the care of minors at school functions. Essentially, the Constitution ends at the border of school property. (that's not much of an exaggeration - it's already been tested in court, and the school's virtually always win)
If they allow anyone to take pictures, they have to allow everyone. And if you are not causing any disruption on our own if they haul you off just because they don't like you will be a huge suite, they will lose it, and the people that did it wont have a job anymore.
( none of this of course applies at a private school.. )
"Gabriel Elizondo, a Brazil-based correspondent for Al Jazeera, is in the middle of a road trip across the United States, talking to people about the effects of 9/11 on American life."
First off, he's a correspondent from Brazil writing for Al Jazeera. He's not been identified as a terrorist, or a Muslim (or Muslim supporter either for that matter, whatever it means to be a "Muslim supporter".), nor did this story say anything more than he was interviewing folks and doing stories about the affects of 9/11 on our life since then. If discussing 9/11 and interviewing folks about how that's changed our life is a way of supporting terrorists, then there's plenty of terrorists on this forum. For instance, in this thread FieroRumor asks essentially the same question as the correspondent in the above story. Is FieroRumor a terrorist? I think not.
Now, it was clear from the story that as soon as the Brazilian was identified as working for a news organization with a Muslim-sounding name he was summarily told to leave. Not asked. Told. No interest was shown in finding out what he was about, what he was doing, offering some sort of workaround such as allowing him to talk to adults in that public facility without taking photos, etc. Nope, he was just told to get out.
The labels of "terrorist supporter", etc, the claims that "he defends murders", etc, are all from the bigots on this conservative forum, those who perceive that anything Muslim must be terrorism and evil (and by default, that only Christians are good and right in this world).
It's amazing what you can learn if you just read the whole story before commenting.
And if you don't think that Texas is the mecca (no pun intended) for pro-Christian bigots then you ought to come down here with "Praise be to Alah" on your car and see how long it takes before it's vandalized, and you likely vandalized along with it. Depending on what part of Texas you show up in you might not even be found, sort of like those "Ni**er supporters" who wound up buried in a Mississippi dam in the movie Mississippi Burning, or get a bullet in the back like Metger Evers did in 1963. That was the year Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, interestingly enough.
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10:40 PM
Formula88 Member
Posts: 53788 From: Raleigh NC Registered: Jan 2001
Jazzman, if it is really that bad, and if he had been allowed in, introduced himself to random strangers and began asking questions about terrorism that made some of those "good ole' boys" concerned for the safety and well being of their children, what would have happened to the reporter? He knew what he was getting into. He went looking for trouble and got denied his opportunity and is crying over his spilled milk. At least he is alive to tell his non-story.
Jazzman, if it is really that bad, and if he had been allowed in, introduced himself to random strangers and began asking questions about terrorism that made some of those "good ole' boys" concerned for the safety and well being of their children, what would have happened to the reporter? He knew what he was getting into. He went looking for trouble and got denied his opportunity and is crying over his spilled milk. At least he is alive to tell his non-story.
You, too, didn't bother reading the story. The scenario you concocted is fiction. He wasn't there to ask questions about terrorism, or to imply that he supported terrorism, or that he condoned 9/11. He, according to his own words, was doing a 10 years on series of interviews about how 9/11 affected the lives of we Americans. If he asked you how you felt ten years on, would you feel the urge to commit violence, to end his life? Just because his business card said he was writing for Al Jazeera? I know that if he'd asked me, I'd say that it's colored every moment of my waking life, that I still remember watching live on TV that second plane hit, the people jumping to their deaths to escape burning to death. I've had nightmares of falling from those buildings, of being crushed under all that concrete, choking to death on the dust. I've woken up with tears in my eyes, not been able to sleep for days at a time.
Those are the words I would give, not a bullet from a gun. Or a fist, or any other sort of violence. I've realized long ago, and I've said this before here, that committing violence IMHO diminishes one's humanity, a little bit for each little act, a lot for large acts. Eventually everyone who is violent ceases to be human in any sense aside from biological DNA which, to me, is the least important definition of being human.
Those officials that reacted that way reacted because they have violence in their heart toward anyone they see as Muslim, and to me that diminishes them in my eyes and clearly marks them as the religious bigots that they are. Nothing more, nothing less.
9/11 gave most of us a choice: To be more like them, or be less like them. The former is the easy choice, reward hate with hate, and they oh so much depend on that hate in order to continue doing what they do. I've chosen to not take the easy path, my choice to make and nobody else's, and the choice I made.
You, too, didn't bother reading the story. The scenario you concocted is fiction. He wasn't there to ask questions about terrorism....
Fiction? I am confused. I read the story, I read your words, I am not following you. The story says he went to ask about the effects of 9/11. Wasn't that the day that a group of terrorists attacked our country? Can you really talk with anyone about what happened that day without bringing the terrorists into the conversation? I did not say that I would cause him harm, you did when you said that Texas citizens have been known to do this. Didn't you say, "Depending on what part of Texas you show up in, you might not even be found." I was simply implying that if things are as bad as you say, he is lucky to have escaped with his life. It is sad that people still live with that kind of hatred. I see the racism everyday and work to end the cycle by trying to be a positive role model to the future generations so for you to imply that I would cause harm to him is an insult to my integrity as an educator.
Truth is that all new repoting agencies put a spin on thier stories, subtle in some cases but rest assured there is a spin. In this case, why wasn't the news story titled "Reporter asked to leave Texas high school football game." ? It doesn't matter what news agency he represented, the mere title that read "Al Jazeera" already started the directional spin that was intended. News reporting is meant to grab headlines, increase readership and sell more advertising. In some cases, political agenda can be present too. Nothing has changed since printed news came into being.
