MediaWatch: September 1990
Table of Contents:
NBC's Iraq "Expert"
THE CAIRO CRANK
NBC's desperate search for Arab "experts" in the wake of its shutout from Iraq led to some mysterious interviews. On the August 12 Nightly News, Garrick Utley interviewed Safynez Kazem, a Muslim theater critic from Cairo. When asked her opinion of Saddam Hussein, Kazem told Utley: "I consider him an American agent or Zionist agent because he is fulfilling for America and fulfilling for Israel all their dreams. America wanted to control the area, control our region."
Unfazed, even impressed, by Kazem's goofy statements, Utley brought her back for a long profile on Sunday Today August 19 and burnished her credentials as an "expert." "Many people said they wanted to learn more about her and her life. Well, she lived for six years in the United States and because of her background, she is able to speak to us in the West about the differences and the tensions between her world and ours."
Kazem's years in America left her less than impressed. "I do not belong to the Western civilization. I was acting like a monkey." After returning to Egypt, she was imprisoned over what she called her "love of principles...we are opposing all measures against democracy." She then went on to applaud the assassination of elected Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981. "So we were very happy inside the prison and we felt that act -- it's not a personal act -- but this actually answered the public appeal that this man should go." "It must have seemed very personal to Sadat," Utley replied.
