Criticizing from a good place

From time to time Waq al-waq may criticize journalists working on Yemen a bit too much, but we also have our favorites whom we respect. Many of these journalists, I know personally, but not all. We also try to be as fair as possible, writing when someone we respect is, at least in our opinion, off the mark – and praising those we often disagree with when they nail a story or have an insight. In short, we attempt to be intellectually honest, and appreciate being called out when we slip.

It isn’t that difficult, I believe, to discern which journalists writing on Yemen I respect. Among these are Khaled al-Hammadi, Abdulihi al-Shayea and many others. Recently, I have also been writing about the quality of Mohammed al-Qadhi’s pieces in the National.

I was a bit disappointed, then, to read al-Qadhi’s latest piece in the National. Besides, not adding much about al-Masri’s press conference, al-Qadhi makes a couple of minor mistakes (South Korea not North Korea and the place, al-Nashur, takes a fattah not a dhamma). I would usually let these go without a comment if it was someone else, but I expect better from al-Qadhi. It should also be pointed out that I make my own share of mistakes in written pieces (I remember the word “terrorist” being printed instead of “tourist” in one piece), and am not beyond making the same mistakes that I criticize.

We criticize because we love, Mohammed.