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Originally posted by AURaptor:



He pwns her on the claim that he doesn't reveal that he's a Muslim. If this were a fight, her side would throw in the towel at this point.

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
Guys, AU conceeded it was an unfair and kinda biased interview. Let's give the guy some credit. Maybe let snarks about msnbc or kinda unintentional implications go now and then.

Seriously that's about as good a concession as you're ever going to see from him. No reason to hammer on the point.

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You are, of course, joking. I cut Rap slack every single time he ever says anything reasonable, and I cannot remember the last time Rap EVER cut ANYONE on the left ANY slack for ANYTHING. So let's get real, shall we? Respect is EARNED, not given away 'cuz just this one time he actually admitted one person on FauxNews did something stupid.

It's called "you get as you give" and I for one am far more reasonable toward Rap all the time than he ever is toward me or anything or anyone he considers "left". Can you honestly say otherwise?

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:


Seriously that's about as good a concession as you're ever going to see from him. No reason to hammer on the point.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

No one was questioning his RIGHT to author such a book, as he so claims.

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You are a Muslim, so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?

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Why would you be interested in the founder of Christianity? (1)

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Originally posted by Niki2:
I've seen articles on this in several places, but haven't bothered to read much about it. What I have read didn't surprise me. I got a giggle out of some of the "suggestions" flying around, like an interviewer asking a veterinarian why he treats ANIMALS ("After all, you're a HUMAN") or why someone's focus of study is on the ocean ("But you live on LAND"), etc.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

And nobc - I've heard that the author's credentials are less than what he claims on matters of history & religion. I've yet to follow up though. I'd like to hear the interviewer ask if he plans on writing any books on the divinity of Mohammed.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:
I've heard that the author's credentials are less than what he claims on matters of history & religion.

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Aslan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in religions from Santa Clara University, a Master of Theological Studies degree from Harvard Divinity School, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, where he was named the Truman Capote Fellow in Fiction. Aslan also received a Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:
Master of fine arts from U of Iowa's Writers workshop ?

Relevant ?

Huh.

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
Um, he's still a professor of religion. Only TWO of the Four are irrelevant, the others aren't. And I'd argue the sociology degree probably does have overlap with the theology aspects - sociology is the study of human organizations, institutions, and behaviours, such as religion.

Not really a professor of history though I'll grant you. So you're half right.

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Aslan holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, where he was named the Truman Capote Fellow in Fiction.

In August 2000, while serving as the Truman Capote Fellow at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Aslan was named Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Iowa, becoming the first full-time professor of Islam in the history of the state.

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Originally posted by Niki2:
What a joke...how many degrees do thousands of people have who write books? Even books on religion...that people are "debating" whether he's got "enough" degrees, or even enough "relevant" degrees to write a book...you really ARE joking, aren't you?

oh, no, wait, I understand; you're playing into Rap's game: "Question anything and anybody I don't like". Play on.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:
Where is he a prof of religion? He teaches creative writing is what I heard. And if 2 degrees are relevant to the matter of religion, why claim 4? He does have them, but so what?

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Green, who is a religion correspondent for Fox News,

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:

EDIT: Oh wait, I think I misunderstood the question. I took "where is he a professor of religion" to mean "How is he a professor of religion." But that was probably asking "at what school is he a professor of religion," like what NOBC was thinking.

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Originally posted by NewOldBrownCoat:
I missed this, buried in Niki's post from livewire ,

Thursday, August 01, 2013 8:58 AM

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Green, who is a religion correspondent for Fox News,

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SO here's a guy with at least 2 degrees that are directly relevant, being questioned about HIS qualification to speak on the subject, and a former Miss Minnesota MUSIC major is a "religion correspondent", and woefully unprepared, who was spoon-fed her questions and folks are letting her have a free ride.

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
In fairness, it's not like the science correspondents at most news places are actually rocket engineers when they interview someone from NASA. Or neuroscientists and etc.

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And I also doubt ANYONE in journalism actually reads a book before they interview the author. Considering how many authors they interview they'd be having to read a book every few days.

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In such an interview, when professionally done, the interviewer concedes to the expert instead of trying to out argue them. The interviewer won't tell the rocket scientist that his/her research is wrong, or make accusations that the scientist is lying about or hiding their "true" motivation for doing their work.

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The GOOD ones do, or at least they have an idea of what is in the book. How long does it take to glance through the intro, especially when you plan the interview to focus on what is in that introduction? Green didn't even know what was on page 2!

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"No, that's not what's in your book and that's not why you wrote it."

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This whole thing does pretty clearly illustrate Faux news, though. Especially the fact that they are still supporting it. *facepalm* What a nightmare it must be to work there, when a hot mess like this is considered "good."

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
Huh. I guess I assumed that most of the industry didn't read the books and just relied on cliffnotes from interns that had done the research for them and the loaded questions from the producers.

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Like how on news websites the writers of an article aren't usually the ones who put it up unless it's on their commentary blog. Instead, interns do that, and sometimes they mess up like the recent cat test front page for the Chicago tribune.

http://gizmodo.com/the-chicago-tribune-has-made-the-best-internet-mist
ake-964073520

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Or the idiot news reporters on one station who reported very incorrect "names" for the pilots of the Asiana flights that crashed because one of the interns pranked them and no one double checked the script or the prompter.

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Doublethink blackwhite. Malquoted rectify go.

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:

EDIT: Oh wait, I think I misunderstood the question. I took "where is he a professor of religion" to mean "How is he a professor of religion." But that was probably asking "at what school is he a professor of religion," like what NOBC was thinking.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:

EDIT: Oh wait, I think I misunderstood the question. I took "where is he a professor of religion" to mean "How is he a professor of religion." But that was probably asking "at what school is he a professor of religion," like what NOBC was thinking.

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Yes, I meant at what school is he teaching religion ?

He said he makes his living teaching religion. MY understanding is that he's currently a creative writing teacher.

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Originally posted by Niki2:

Just sayin': Jon Stewart reads the books of the people he interviews. I could name a couple more, but that's probably more than enough to instigate something from Rap, and the others I'd list would do it even quicker.

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There's a whole back-story to FauxNews and how it became the way it is, it's actually fascinating, but really sad. There were once real journalists there, trying to do a decent job.

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
Okay.

Somehow in my head reading that I conflated the question you were actually asking with an assumption that you were asking "where are you getting that conclusion?"

Brains are weird sometimes. Sorry about that.

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Originally posted by NewOldBrownCoat:
But, she's (Laura Green, not Byte) supposed to be a religion correspondent, not just a general assignment reporter. That implies a specialization, some study if not expertise.

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Originally posted by FREMDFIRMA:

Erm.
Just a tiny wee little note here.

You DO realize I have on paper, zero professional qualifications, yes ?
I'm of the mind that the paper means a bit less than actual knowledge of the subject material, which of course, in this case is all but moot given that at least one participant displayed damn-near-none, but still...

I dun put so much stock in that paper, as there's plenty of pretty damn smart folk out and about in the world who can't AFFORD that paper, just sayin.

-Frem

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:


I'm also slightly uncomfortable about snarking about this lady just because she was in beauty pageants. I HATE beauty pageants, yes, but that's how some women get scholarships.

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