British TALKTV presenter, Julia Hartley-Brewer, sparked controversy over the way she treated her guest, Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, Mustafa Barghouti, as she became emotional at him during the episode, shouting at him, mocking his words and trying to silence him, accusing him of being unaccustomed to the presence of a woman speaking.
TALKTV published a video clip of its anchor’s emotional moments on its page on the “X” website, commenting on it, “Julia Hartley Brewer clashes with Dr. Mustafa Barghouti after the assassination of the deputy leader of Hamas.”
The video begins with Barghouti asking Hartley Brewer whether she believes that Israel is a democratic state. After she confirms this, he interrupts her, accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of destroying democracy. She interrupts him agitated, refusing to talk about Netanyahu’s history due to time constraints. She also refuses to repeat Barghouti’s talk about October 7th. He put it in a historical context, saying, “You made your point clear five times… I don’t have time for that.”
After the guest asked her, “What do you have time for?” she shouted, asking him to wait for her to finish her speech, saying, “Maybe you are not used to women talking.”
As soon as the episode in which the Palestinian official appeared following the assassination of Hamas deputy leader Saleh Al-Arouri in the southern suburbs of Beirut ended, criticism rained down on Hartley Brewer, as some social media users accused her of “impudence, racism, violence, condescension, and thuggish performance.”
Misplaced exploitation
It is clear that the broadcaster practiced, according to what the director of the FEMALE Association, Hayat Murshad, “white supremacy and dealt with racism in her speech, which was very far from professional ethics, trying to rely on Popular image About the Arab man as being masculine and not listening to women, at a time when she was the one implementing that.”
The presenter’s emotion on the air and the way she dealt with her guest is evidence, as Murshad stresses, that she is “a party to the topic under discussion, and when she was unable to control her nerves, she resorted to the trend of men’s oppression of women as an argument before the audience, but in reality she used feminist concepts in a superficial, ridiculous, and inappropriate way.” At a time when the guest dealt with her with elegance, calmness and tact.”
Murshad stresses, “Our defense of women’s issues is not absolute, but rather limited to valid issues. Hence, we must distinguish between the issues we are working on in Eastern countries and the agenda of white and Western feminists who are trying to impose on us, since we do not fully identify with them and the differences between us are great and fundamental.” .
She added, “It is not possible to talk about feminism without critical thought, as it is a cornerstone for the development of this social and political movement that aims for social justice and the defense of all marginalized and oppressed people, and not to wage battles between men and women. Therefore, this broadcaster is not a model of feminism and has nothing to do with that.”
The researcher at the Samir Kassir Foundation, journalist Widad Jarbou, also confirmed that the broadcaster “wanted to exploit the stereotypical view of the Eastern man that he does not listen to women, and to project this view into the dialogue to suppress Barghouti with the aim of imposing her views after she found that his views were completely different from what she wanted to convey to the viewers.”
Barghouti remained until the last minute, as Jarbou sees, maintaining his calm and tact despite all the broadcaster’s attempts to provoke him, proving that the accusations she made against him were committed by her and not the other way around, and that she did not adhere to professional standards.”
Loss of professionalism
Hartley Brewer did not observe professional rules, neither in form nor in content, as confirmed by the professor of media at the Lebanese University, Dr. Maha Zaraket, explaining, “In appearance, it seemed clear that she did not respect her guest, by closing her ears to not hear his answers, and her laughter, and indicating with her hand that he was upset.” Time, and her repeated standing and sitting on the chair, in addition to the movement of her hands.”
In substance, Hartley Brewer refused, as Zaraqat says, to hear the opinion of her guest, who seemed to dislike her. “And to divert the discussion from its content, she practiced the white man’s racism against him, and accused him of masculinity by saying that he was not accustomed to hearing a woman speak, an attempt to overthrow the West’s wrong concept of the treatment of men.” Arab for women.
Zaraqat’s words were confirmed by the coordinator of the Alternative Press Syndicate, Alsi Mufarrej, by saying that “the broadcaster’s nervousness and tension prevented her guest from conveying his idea, and she took on the role of a history teacher and rejected any answer that did not fit her positions, and exploited certain principles to divert attention from the main topic with the aim of misleading public opinion and appealing to it.” All of these things contradict professional principles and have nothing to do with feminism, and in the end they appeared to be useless before Barghouti.”
Among the basic professional rules that a journalist must adhere to, according to Zaraqat, is “respecting the guest, listening to him, and giving him enough time to answer. If the journalist has a dissenting opinion, he must refute the argument with argument and information with information, not with shouting and sarcasm.”
It is certain that, according to the media professor, Hartley Brewer would not have dared “to do what she did if her guest had been non-Arab,” stressing, “We are no longer surprised by the failures of the Western media, especially the British one, during its coverage of the ongoing war in Gaza, as it lost its principles that were taught to media students everywhere.” around the world”.
#women #talking #broadcaster #sparks #widespread #criticism #dealing #Palestinian #politician
2024-01-05 20:39:10
