Ahmed Rashid on ABC News This Week
This Sunday, August 1, the internationally acclaimed journalist and author Ahmed Rashid appeared as a featured guest on ABC News This Week. In a roundtable discussion with George Will, Donna Brazile and Paul Krugman, Rashid discussed the significance and concerns behind the recent exposure of information on the Afghanistan war by WikiLeaks. Christine Amanpour, the new host of ABC’s Sunday news program, acknowledged Rashid as “the world’s leading authority on the
Taliban.” The second edition of Taliban, Rashid’s seminal work on the infamous terrorist organization from the Middle East, is currently available for purchase.
At the risk of completely questioning the premise of the Sunday show format, maybe hosting weekly chats with prominent politicians is not a particularly great way of illuminating the vital issues of the day. It does give the major parties a platform from which to spout their talking points, which is really what the the producers are defending here as their way of doing journalism.