{"id":17460,"date":"2012-04-04T08:41:01","date_gmt":"2012-04-04T04:41:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=17460"},"modified":"2012-04-10T07:44:09","modified_gmt":"2012-04-10T03:44:09","slug":"pot-kettle-black-jordanian-mps-call-out-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-business\/middle-east-media-analysis\/pot-kettle-black-jordanian-mps-call-out-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Pot, Kettle, Black: Jordanian MPs Call Out Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>After some limited so-called public outrage over moves by Parliament to amend the Passport law to grant themselves permanent diplomatic passports \u2013 along with royal family members, senators, royal court chiefs, King\u2019s advisors, Islamic justices, as well as former and current ministers \u2013 the Senate seems to have rejected the amendment. The mildly controversial story is just another demonstration of Parliament\u2019s bankruptcy as an effective and trustworthy legislative body, but more importantly, it\u2019s also yet another distraction. However, one thing did catch my attention regarding this story:<\/p>\n

Angry with the media outlets\u2019 \u201cabusive and prejudiced\u201d coverage of their recent controversial amendments to the legislation, several deputies went on the offensive against journalists last week, describing them as \u201ccorrupt\u201d, \u201cindecent\u201d, \u201cbiased\u201d, \u201chypocritical\u201d and \u201cbought off\u201d. Following last Tuesday\u2019s session, the Jordan Press Association issued a statement denouncing the \u201coffensive\u201d remarks and calling on media outlets to boycott the deputies who made them, whom the syndicate described as \u201cpolitically bankrupt\u201d.[source<\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There was just so much irony in the accusations made by MPs that my head momentarily considered imploding.<\/p>\n

Indeed, there is much that is wrong with our media and level of quality journalism, but this constant use of the media as the go-to straw man whenever shit hits the fan is growing increasingly absurd. There isn\u2019t a single political figure in this country (be they appointed or elected) who doesn\u2019t come with their own baggage, and simply put, those in glass houses shouldn\u2019t be throwing stones. Being \u201ccorrupt\u201d, \u201cindecent\u201d, \u201cbiased\u201d, \u201chypocritical\u201d and \u201cbought off\u201d, are all adjectives that accurately describe many within Parliament and beyond.<\/p>\n

As for the passports \u2013 this is such an incredibly silly issue that I\u2019m wondering whether this was all deliberately planned just for the heck of the distraction. Because the alternative is that in the midst of unprecedented political upheaval in the region, in the midst of chronic poverty and unemployment, in the midst of Jordanians protesting and others losing faith in the state\u2019s ability to deliver on reform promises \u2013 in the midst of all this, the genius calibre that is our parliament has decided to grant themselves a perk. What makes this even more idiotic is that we are talking about a country where, as of today, women are unable to pass on citizenship to their children (forget passports\u2026citizenship), and there unresolved issues regarding the withdrawal of passports from citizens of Palestinian decent. So naturally, both the timing and context is just right to discuss giving yourself and the political elite permanent diplomatic passports. This is to say nothing of plans to revise their lifelong pensions, with some MPs\u00a0threatening to boycott parliament<\/a>\u00a0if they don\u2019t get one.<\/p>\n

Why this current parliament exists is beyond me. And why we are allowing it to\u00a0vote on the election law<\/a>, to say nothing of the constitutional amendments, baffles me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASEEM TARAWNAH: When I saw the accusations I felt like my head was imploding. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":17461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,148,483,44,89,65],"tags":[18305,18280,1997,1095,3967],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17460"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}