Diana West over at Michelle Malkin’s site has penned an extraordinarily kind and generous summation of the circumstances surrounding my pre-refuted interview for C-Span, which will air in its entirety this coming Sunday at 8 and 11PM, after already having been refuted by Akbar Ahmed, the Chair of Islamic Studies at American University. The full transcript of what Ahmed said is here, and you can watch the show featuring him here. C-Span gave me no opportunity to reply to Dr. Ahmed or to interact with him at all; so I did so here at Jihad Watch.
Says Diana West:
…In one of the looser interpretations of what are vaguely known as journalistic ethics, C-Span took portions of the unaired Spencer interview and showed them, in a completely separate interview that has already aired, to Akbar Ahmed, a Muslim academic from American University. Mr. Ahmed was then asked, on the air, to refute Robert’s taped analysis of jihad doctrine and other now-controversial issues. Since Robert was not given the same chance to respond to Mr. Ahmed, he has exercised his Freedom of the Blogosphere and done so here–and sent it to Mr. Ahmed. “Thank you for your response. I look forward to talking soon,” Mr. Ahmed replied.
It seems like an awful lot of trouble for Robert to have to go just to try to have a reasoned debate. Here’s a bright idea for C-Span: Invite both men back at the same time to talk this thing out face to face.
Thanks, Diana. I’m ready anytime they are.