Bio
Lawrence Pintak is the founding dean of The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University. A former CBS News Middle East correspondent, he has been called the foremost chronicler of the interaction between Arab and Western media. His books and articles focus on America's relationship with the Muslim world, the role of the media in shaping global perceptions and government policy, and the future of journalism in a digital/globalized world. Pintak reported on … [Read More...]
Inside the Indonesian Newsroom: The Good, the Bad and the Hopeful (CJR.Org)
(May 3, 2013) — Indonesia remains a nation in flux. So, too, its journalism. Fifteen years after the country’s long-time strongman and president, Suharto, was overthrown and press restrictions were eased, Indonesian journalists continue to face a host of pressures: The pay is still lousy, the challenges still complex, the physical dangers still real. But […]
Ask Romney This: What Will You Do About the Middle East? (CJR.org)
(Oct. 10, 2012) Over the final month of the campaign, CJR will run a series of posts under the headline “Ask Obama This” and “Ask Romney This,” suggesting questions that reporters should pose to the presidential candidates. The first installment focused on President Obama and his jobs plan. This one on Mitt Romney and foreign […]
Journalistic Firebombs in the Middle East: Is it our job to inflame or inform? (CJR.org)
(Sept. 27, 2012) The pen is mightier than the sword, but it is also far more lethal when manipulated irresponsibly. Consider Charb. There is a ridiculous photo circulating on the web showing the editor of Charlie Hebdo (Charlie Weekly), the French satirical magazine. He goes by the name Charb, and in one hand he holds […]
Washington State’s Rural Information Ghettos (The Seattle Times)
(June 18, 2012) In huge sections of Washington, citizens have little or no access to news about what is taking place in their own communities. The situation is particularly grim in areas populated by minorities and on some of the vast Native American reservations. By Lawrence Pintak Special to The Times THE city manager was […]
Indonesia can teach Egypt about post-revolution generals and politics (The Seattle Times)
JAKARTA (March 24, 2012) — “We warned them about trusting the military.” The topic of the conversation was Egypt, but the speaker was no anti-Supreme Council of the Armed Forces activist or Western human-rights worker. She was a top adviser to the vice president of Indonesia, a country that knows a thing or two about […]
Ira Glass’s Casablanca Moment with Mike Daisey (CJR.org)
(March 20, 2012) Over the weekend, as just about anyone with electricity knows by now, the public radio program This American Life fell on its sword over its bad Apple episode. The gesture was a noble one. As CJR’s Ryan Chittum put it: With the stunning news that This American Life is retracting its episode […]
Report on Media and Policy in the Muslim World Retreat
(Feb. 10, 2012) Journalists across the Muslim world are in need of political and practical support in the face of a backlash from governments struggling to undermine the media revolution sweeping the Middle East, Southeast and South Asia, according to a new report released by The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State […]
Journalism Education in the Pakistani Borderlands (Chronicle of Higher Ed)
(Islamabad, January 22, 2012) Students brave roadside bombs and Taliban threats while on class assignments. Professors are kidnapped and killed. Campus radio stations get regular visits from military intelligence. Welcome to journalism education in Pakistan’s tribal areas. “Nine-eleven was a boon to us,” says a lecturer at one of the universities there, a few dozen […]
Breathing Room: Toward a New Arab Media (Columbia Journalism Review Cover Story)
(May/June 2011) Before there was Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or even Al Jazeera, there was Hama, Syria. It was 1982 and an anti-government protest was put down with ferocious violence. The Syrian government simply destroyed whole sections of the city, leaving at least ten thousand people dead. But the slaughter went unreported in that closed society. […]
The New Colonialism: Iraq, Iran and the American Regency (Progressive Populist)
(Note from the author: This article was published April 15, 2003 as U.S. forces invaded Iraq. As they withdraw, I thought it would be useful to look back). America is about to become a colonial power. That step will carry with it profound — and potentially disastrous — implications for our long-term relationship with the Islamic […]
