A reader comes to the monitoring group’s defence:
Would we be better off not knowing that Hezbollah is broadcasting films portraying Jews killing children to make matzoh from their blood? I, for one, am grateful to know this. If they [MEMRI] are selective, show me anyone on the Left who is not also choosy.
The fact remains, they are not making this stuff up. If there are more conciliatory messages that MEMRI is ignoring I would be grateful to anyone who translates them and makes them available. I have read translations of conciliatory things from MEMRI. There is no shortage of media outlets spinning things to put Israel in a bad light
And an e-mail from Meph, one of the contributors to ‘Aqoul:
Just in response to one of your commentators regarding MEMRI's translation, you will find that it is not actually blatant misrepresentation of which MEMRI is accused but truncations and severe editing. Aqoul's translation of the Wafa Sultan Aljazeera transcript http://www.aqoul.com/archives/2006/03/aljazeera_trans.php) I think illustrates the nuances.
UPDATE: Another reader disagrees:
http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/008359.php shows that the MEMRI excerpts are essentially accurate. So Meph is overstating his case. The main difference between the 'Aqoul transcript and the MEMRI excerpts is that the MEMRI excerpts fail to convey the full flavour of the interview (obviously) and in particular the attitudes of the host towards Sultan. Also the word that MEMRI renders as "heretic is translated by Aqoul as "atheist".
Hardly an indictment of MEMRI's reliablity.
This is ridiculous since my original point was that skewed editing is what makes MEMRI unreliable. Surely when one is translating a debate, the whole context is crucial? In addition, the word "heretic" is central to claims that Sultan was tagged an infidel and therefore automatically a fatwa hung over her head. One cannot trivialise these matters, one cannot be a little inaccurate or a little pregnant. Such nuances and lack of bigger picture representations - especially when not only words but death threats are being "translated" - lie at the very heart of discrediting MEMRI's integrity.
