Qifa Nabki
Marcel Ghanem
Lebanese Political Talk Show Rumbles: A Tentative Top Five
As regular readers will attest, I’m something of a Lebanese political talk show junkie. Shows like Kalam al-Nas, Bi-Mawdu`iyyeh, al-Fasad, and others, in my view, do a much better job of derailing politicians off their talking points than most of their counterparts in the West. In a country where the print media is largely ignored … Continue reading
General Aoun’s Interview with Marcel Ghanem
Free Patriotic Movement leader General Michel Aoun went on Kalam al-Nas (the most widely-watched political talk show in Lebanon) last Thursday, and had a long conversation with Marcel Ghanem, the show’s famous host. The entire interview is available on YouTube in ten-minute installments. You can catch the first one here, and then navigate to the … Continue reading
A Reality TV Show Proposal: “Repair Lebanon”
Hendrik Hertzberg, writing in last week’s New Yorker, describes a fascinating new populist initiative called Repair California, which aims to solve that state’s governance problems (legislative gridlock, huge budget deficits, bureaucratic inefficiencies) through a citizen-sponsored constitutional convention. Here are the salient bits of the article: “California, it turns out, is ungovernable. Its public schools, once … Continue reading
The Eagle Has Landed
So. Who else wants to try debating `Uqab Saqr on live television? No one? I thought not. Unless the opposition is willing to dig a lot deeper, I don’t think March 14th’s James Carville is going to see much action for a while. Of all the political operatives on the Lebanese talk show circuit, Saqr … Continue reading
Aoun on Kalam al-Nas
Marcel Ghanem interviewed Michel Aoun last night on his popular talk show, Kalam al-Nas. The general was his regular fiery self, but plain were the signs of campaign fatigue: bags under the eyes, thinning hair, and a sallow complexion. Marcel, meanwhile, was in rare form, tugging at every loose thread and goading the FPM chief … Continue reading
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