And that is but a couple of the problems with the rage for Arab talk shows. Many hosts, in contrast, are not necessarily as well prepared. Nor is respect and dignity necessarily apparent as the model for these talk shows drifts from The Larry King Show to Oprah and various other American and British TV daytime horrors of ill-mannered confrontation, in which interrupting fellow guests, shouting, violent gesticulation just short of actual violence, has become increasingly common and regretfully popular. And the drift of TV talk shows, while theoretically opening up new channels of public discourse on previously taboo subjects of social import, to quote the favorable literature, is receding away from opinion that is informed to opinion that is sensationalist. Dreyfus noted how the talk show, at least in America, has been one of the major forces in the destruction of good manners, dignity and decency in contemporary culture.
Opinions are a dime a dozen.
It s an intellectual vice that the modern Arab world suffers from. Presumably what makes an opinion informed and thereby contributes to informed public opinion is the acquisition at least of relevant and substantial fact, and ideally of knowledge and wisdom. These ingredients of an informed opinion must be sought, and in the case of contemporary events, that means real journalism and serious field reporting. By which I mean a journalist who has researched the historic background of the ongoing event and then goes off into the field to report on the unfolding event. In the Arab East there was never any TV journalism until the Gulf War.