{"id":1647367,"date":"2022-09-19T14:47:44","date_gmt":"2022-09-19T18:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1647367"},"modified":"2022-09-19T14:49:00","modified_gmt":"2022-09-19T18:49:00","slug":"what-60-minutes-could-learn-from-oriana-fallaci","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/what-60-minutes-could-learn-from-oriana-fallaci\/","title":{"rendered":"What \u201960 Minutes\u2019 Could Learn From Oriana Fallaci"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhat-60-minutes-could-learn-from-oriana-fallaci%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1647367&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>A few weeks after Iran\u2019s \u201cpresident,\u201d Ebrahim Raisi, promised stricter enforcement of his nation\u2019s misogynistic dress code, a woman named Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurd, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.voanews.com\/a\/iranian-womans-death-after-morals-police-arrest-sparks-protests\/6750841.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">was likely beaten to death<\/a> by \u201cmorality police\u201d for failing to wear her hijab properly. The apparent murder was nothing new for the theocratic \u201cguidance patrols\u201d that have been patrolling cities since the 1979 Islamic revolution, one of the most disastrous events of the late 20th century.<\/p>\n<p>This week, Leslie Stahl of \u201c60 Minutes\u201d interviewed this same theocratic crackpot responsible for Amini\u2019s death <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/60Minutes\/status\/1571662355225796608\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wearing a hijab<\/a>. And it immediately reminded me of Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci\u2019s 1979 interview with Ayatollah Khomeini. The juxtaposition reminds us just how much journalistic integrity has eroded.<\/p>\n<p>Rarely mentioned these days, Fallaci, who died in 2006, was somewhat of a celebrity due to her pugilistic interviews with world leaders in the 1960s and 1970s. A war correspondent for most of her career, Fallaci was shot three times and left for dead during student demonstrations in Mexico City in 1968 in what became known <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/10\/01\/world\/americas\/mexico-tlatelolco-massacre.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">as the Tlatelolco massacre<\/a>. Striking and sophisticated, uninterested in the ideology or political affiliation of her victims, Fallaci had no patience for moral equivalency. In truth, she was a liberal of the old school, and her infinite skepticism regarding power made her the most formidable interviewer of her time. \u201cWhether it comes from a despotic sovereign or an elected president, from a murderous general or a beloved leader, I see power as an inhuman and hateful phenomenon,\u201d she is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2006\/06\/05\/the-agitator\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">quoted<\/a> in her book \u201cInterviews with History\u201d (which should be required reading in journalism school). \u201cI have always looked on disobedience toward the oppressive as the only way to use the miracle of having been born.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kissinger famously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/review-the-star-of-her-own-work-1509138502\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">referred<\/a> to his interview with Fallaci as \u201cthe single most disastrous conversation I have ever had with any member of the press.\u201d Fallaci asked then-darling of Western leftists, Yasser Arafat, \u201cHow many Israelis do you think you\u2019ve killed up to this date?\u201d When Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi began spinning an anti-Semitic \u201cZionist\u201d conspiracy, she noted that \u201cHitler would have been a very good friend for you.\u201d After interviewing her for Playboy in 1981, the left-wing journalist Robert Scheer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/books\/edition\/The_Playboy_Interview_II\/al0DAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&amp;gbpv=1&amp;bsq=%E2%80%9Cthe+first+time+in+my+life,+I+found+myself+feeling+sorry+for+the+likes+of+Khomeini,+Qaddafi,+the+Shah+of+Iran,+and+Kissinger...%E2%80%9D&amp;dq=%E2%80%9Cthe+first+time+in+my+life,+I+found+myself+feeling+sorry+for+the+likes+of+Khomeini,+Qaddafi,+the+Shah+of+Iran,+and+Kissinger...%E2%80%9D&amp;printsec=frontcover\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">noted<\/a> it was \u201cthe first time in my life, I found myself feeling sorry for the likes of Khomeini, Qaddafi, the Shah of Iran, and Kissinger\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Did anyone feel bad for Ebrahim Raisi after watching \u201c60 Minutes\u201d? I cringed reading outlets <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/tv\/watch-leslie-stahl-confronts-irans-president-over-whether-the-holocaust-happened\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">claim<\/a> that Stahl had \u201cconfronted\u201d Raisi over whether he was a Holocaust denier. Stahl asked Raisi: \u201cDo you believe the Holocaust happened? That 6 million Jews were slaughtered?\u201d Raisi answered that \u201chistorical events should be investigated by researchers and historians. There are some signs that it happened. If so, they should allow it to be investigated and researched.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo you\u2019re not sure. I\u2019m getting that. You\u2019re not sure,\u201d Stahl responded.<\/p>\n<p>Ah, yes. If only <em>someone<\/em> had thought to research the Holocaust. In any event, that is no confrontation. It is merely a statement confirming the position of the Iranians. We already know that the regime, the world\u2019s leading anti-Semitic entity, not only <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ushmm.org\/information\/press\/press-kits\/press-guide-to-holocaust-denial-in-iran\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">denies<\/a> the Holocaust but promises to conduct its own genocide against Jews. And many in the United States government, to their everlasting shame, insist we coddle and empower this regime that is also responsible for the murder of 600 American servicemen \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2019\/04\/04\/iran-killed-more-us-troops-in-iraq-than-previously-known-pentagon-says\/\">one out of every six fatalities in Iraq<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As Christopher Hitchens <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/news\/2006\/12\/hitchens200612\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pointed out<\/a>, comparing Dan Rather\u2019s similarly gutless 2003 interview with Saddam Hussein to Fallaci\u2019s grilling of Khomeini, it\u2019s not the quality of the answers from dictators that is the problem, but the quality of the questions.<\/p>\n<p>Fallaci, only months after the Islamic Revolution had occurred and a month before American diplomats and citizens were taken hostage, went, on her own, to Iran to procure an interview with Ayatollah Khomeini. She spent 10 days in the holy city of Qum surrounded by extremists waiting for the chance. (Fallaci writes about the ordeal in \u201cConversation with Power.\u201d) Perhaps the only reason the Italian was given an audience was that she had also conducted a belligerent interview with Khomeini\u2019s archenemy the Shah of Iran in 1973. (Fallaci: \u201cI\u2019d like to ask you: if I were an Iranian instead of an Italian, and lived here and thought as I do and wrote as I do, I mean if I were to criticize you, would you throw me in jail?\u201d The Shah: \u201cProbably.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>Fallaci, barefoot and covered in Islamic garb from head to toe, proceeds to challenge every Khomeini lie, confronting him on his fascistic tactics and murders. You really need to read the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1979\/10\/07\/archives\/an-interview-with-khomeini.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">transcript<\/a> to comprehend just how masterfully she handles the interview. Here is a snippet of her challenging the Iranian regime\u2019s insistence that she wear religious garb \u2013 a \u201cstupid, medieval rag.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p><strong>FALLACI<\/strong>: Please, Imam, there are many things I still want to ask you. For example, this chador that they made me put on, to come to you, and which you insist all women must wear. Tell me, why do you force them to hide themselves, all bundled up under these uncomfortable and absurd garments, making it hard to work and move about? And yet, even here, women have demonstrated that they are equal to men. They fought just like the men, were imprisoned and tortured. They, too, helped to make the revolution.<\/p>\n<p><strong>KHOMEINI<\/strong>: The women who contributed to the revolution were, and are, women with the Islamic dress, not elegant women all made up like you, who go around all uncovered, dragging behind them a tail of men. The coquettes who put on makeup and go into the street showing off their necks, their hair, their shapes, did not fight against the Shah. They never did anything good, not those. They do not know how to be useful, neither socially, nor politically, nor professionally. And this is so because, by uncovering themselves, they distract men, and upset them. Then they distract and upset even other\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>FALLACI<\/strong>: That\u2019s not true, Imam. In any case, I am not only talking about piece of clothing, but what it represents. That is, the condition of segregation into which women have been cast once again, after the revolution. The fact that they can\u2019t study at university with men, or work with men, for example, or go to the beach or to a swimming pool with men. They have to take a dip apart, in their chadors. By the way, how do you swim in a chador?<\/p>\n<p><strong>KHOMEINI<\/strong>: This is none of your business. Our customs are none of your business. If you do not like Islamic dress you are not obliged to wear it. Because Islamic dress is for good and proper young women.<\/p>\n<p><strong>FALLACI<\/strong>: That\u2019s very kind of you, Imam. And since you said so, I\u2019m going to take off this stupid, medieval rag right now. There. Done. But tell me something. A woman such as I, who has always lived among men, showing her neck, her hair, her ears, who has been in war and slept in the front line in the field among soldiers, according to you, is she an immoral, bold and unproper woman?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>It is impossible for me to imagine any reporter showing the skills or guts to engage a bully in this way. Now, no one is expecting Leslie Stahl, or anyone else, to be the next Oriana Fallaci. But it would be nice if contemporary journalists were at least as tough on murderous dictators as they are on domestic conservative foes.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of five books\u2014the most recent, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Eurotrash-America-Reject-Failed-Continent\/dp\/0063066017\/\">Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent<\/a>. His work has appeared in National Review, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Reason, New York Post, and numerous other publications. Follow him on Twitter, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidharsanyi\/\">@davidharsanyi<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few weeks after Iran\u2019s \u201cpresident,\u201d Ebrahim Raisi, promised stricter enforcement of his nation\u2019s misogynistic dress code, a woman named Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurd, was likely beaten to death<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":831,"featured_media":1898282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1647367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1647367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1898282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1647367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1647367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1647367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}