Lebanese “Journalists” Piss Me Off

I don’t usually like to rant – who am I kidding – I love to rant. So today, I shall rant. Lebanese journalists. Ya salam salim. I am very picky about which journalists I read for, and which news “agencies” I trust. For example, I do not read news from Future TV or Al Manar simply, because it is all propaganda and HABAL. But today, was the last straw for me when it comes to Lebanese journalists. I obviously have my favorites, and if they are reading this now – they will for sure know themselves. It’s easy, most of them belong to NowLebanon.

This is Amar

Anyways, today I was looking in depth about Amar – the singer from Tripoli – and the scandal that surrounds her. I found myself feeling a little bit sorry for her, and angry at Lebanese journalism once again. For the record, I usually don’t know much about the Arab celebrities and things that surround their personal lives – but this one “stuck with me” I guess you could say.

The scandal goes something like this – to sum it up for you: Amar gets pregnant, the alleged father of the child refuses to state that the child is his because guess what? He is the owner of the Melody Group. Her mom calls Lebanon’s WORST journalists and bashes her daughter, and the media goes wild. Simple enough. No?

Okay, what does Lebanese journalists have to do with this? Very simply, the unprofessional manner in which our “media” deals with everything, jumped on the Amar bandwagon and took things to the most unclassy levels. I do understand the word “tabloid” and I do understand how things are done when referring to news about celebrities. In the USA tabloids are a multi-billion dollar business – however, I find that when it comes to things that concern the personal lives of celebrities, things are usually accurate with very little exaggeration and lies. [Well known tabloids I am referring to here, not magazines that sell for $1.50]. The thing that bothers me with Lebanese journalists is the extremely negative and harsh words they direct at everything or everyone that crosses their path.

I for one, am all for you bashing a song, bashing an actors role in a movie, certain scenes in a video clip, how a celebrity is dressed or something they said about the general public. I do however have a problem about how our journalists refer to people as “whores”, “wild”, “idiots”, “prostitutes” and the likes. This also applies to Lebanese political journalists who use the same words to attack their fellow colleagues. In my opinion, the second you use words like these to describe a person, you have lost all credibility and professionalism in your career as an informer. *Cough* Nidal Ahmadiyi *cough* .

When it came to the news across Lebanon, archived online as articles or videos, about Amar I was disgusted to see how much people in our society lack professionalism. Really. It is sad. How many celebrities in the USA have gotten pregnant before marriage? Hundreds. Their media did not refer to them as “whores” even though much of the USA is still STRONGLY conservative. Actually, what pissed me off is the lack of OBJECTIVENESS. As usual, our media sources and outlets are not objective.

I would have loved to hear both sides of the story, maybe a little bit of insight from Amar herself about the subject. But instead, our media showered the stands with lies. One minute the father was an Egyptian male prostitute, then an Italian escort, then apparently her mother said it was a Lebanese official. Like seriously? If this was in North America, your company would be filling for bankruptcy and Amar reaping in your “hard earned” finances. Until this day the story is still taking on many shapes and forms – and still today, they ignore the fact that Amar is challenging the owner of the Melody Group, a leader in the music industry. We seen what has happened to female celebrities in the region which have taken on powerful men. Suzane Tamim and Zekra are perfect examples. So this girl is obviously not lying. Her LIFE is on the line. On the Zaven show, Amar defended herself agaisnt some of the most ruthless journalists in Lebanon – “my personal life is for me, if you want to attack me… attack things I have made public for you [in reference to her songs]“. I strongly agree! Later on she was forced to speak about her life on LBC – which was filled with tears and in depth accounts of her life.

Najwa Karam sued Nidal Ahmadiyi a couple of years ago over an issue like this. I am happy she did. What is sad, is aspects of a celebrity’s life in Lebanon are usually forced to surface, in order to defend things they do. I mean, did Amar really have to talk about how she grew up fatherless because the Civil War? Did she have to talk about abuse from a step father, neglect from her birth mother, raising a younger sister while she was only 15, AND being put in a home for 14 years of her life where she did not know her real mother? I personally say no. Just our media is so degrading that it forces things out of you which you don’t want to say.

I for one am sick of the media we have in Lebanon. I can care less about Amar, I don’t listen to her music, nor do I follow her news. I care about the media scene, the art of providing accurate and professional information – even if it is in the entertainment sector- and journalism as a profession and where it is going. I am sick of reading the papers from Lebanon and expecting what I will read. I mean… we know which journalist will attack a certain politician, and which paper will attack a specific group of people. Its degrading. Furthermore, I refuse to say Lebanon is still a leader in media in the Middle East – because it’s not. It’s a leader in media bullshit.