A Conversation with Juan Cole — Video Interview on Iraq
[From the diaries by susanhu. Citizen journalism! Great job, Mark.]
As some of you may have read, I was planning to travel to the University of Michigan and do an interview with Prof. Juan Cole, the noted expert on the Middle East and proprietor of the blog Informed Comment. This was an outgrowth of an email exchange that I had with him as well as some diaries I posted on dKos and on BMT.
Well, I decided to go all out and do a video interview. I was accompanied by fellow dKosser JessicaDrewSW, who contributed her video expertise and was the cameraperson. I have just posted the complete interview video (split into seven parts) at the following locations:
Please click…
Introduction
Attempts to stop Cole’s internet activities and allegations of antisemitism
Motivations for the war and consequences of a partition of Iraq
The separation of church and state in the new Iraq
The worst black mark on American foreign policy
All you have to do is go there and, after the page loads, click on the “This media file’s URL: Link” just below the picture on the web page. Left click if you want to view the video within the browser, or right click and select “Save target as…” (or similar, bepending on your browser) to save the video as a file on your computer. It is a Quicktime file.
The intro is about 8 minutes long and amazingly only took about 12MB, due to the fantastic compression afforded by Quicktime. The succeeding 6 parts vary from 8 to 23 minutes. If you don’t have Quicktime then the file may play in another viewer, but if not then it is easy (and free) to download Quicktime7 from apple here:
I assume that you already have it if you are a Mac person.
If you think what I have is promising then maybe you could recommend this diary so that the interview can get a wider audience.
Feel free to respone with comments, auggestions, questions, or whatever. Please realize that I haven’t done anything even remotely like this before, so I am climbing the learning curve. That said, let me have it 🙂
The last segment will be up in about a half hour. The rest are up and running. Happy viewing!
P.S. Sorry about the crappy audio. We had equipment problems. I tried to correct them in post production and did manage to improve the situation.
This is REALLY GOOD! Mark, you speak so well!
(And you plug BoomanTribune along with DKos and My Left Wing… kewl!)
Maybe the site is overloaded — which would be good news, actually. Will try again later.
Same here. Looking forward to seeing this interview.
Did you click on the link below the photo?
It might be overloaded since I think Mark posted this also at Kos and My Left wing.
It’s just wonderful — and Mark is a great interviewer.
Here — I’ll close my window to free up a connection.
BBC:
Ex-Blair envoy gives Iraq warning
There must be a ‘reasonable prospect’ of success – Greenstock
The UK and US may have to abandon Iraq if central government breaks down and the country is engulfed by chaos, Tony Blair’s former special envoy has said.
Sir Jeremy Greenstock said a pullout from Iraq might be needed if the US and UK had no “reasonable prospect of holding it together”.
But he said he did not think this had happened yet.
His words follow violent incidents in Basra after the Army rescued two SAS soldiers seized by Iraqi police.
Earlier, Tory leader Michael Howard called for a new strategy to combat insurgency in Iraq.
Perhaps Cole should have been facing the camera. It’s harder to understand what he’s saying. He’s also the interviewee, so maybe he should be more at the center.
On the other hand, the format you have suggests a conversation, which is good. So if you can solve the audibility problem in some other way, better.
This is possibly the first in a new kind of interview journalism. Good work.
(I apologize for not saying anything more about the content)
I also noticed your copy of Thorne, Misner & Wheeler…
I had the same problem hearing a bit of Cole … but could get the gist of it.
I bet a techy sort of person could easily tweak that sound!
It’s otherwise very well done, and — just wow. I’m impressed.
I tweaked it quite a bit – you should have heard the original. It’s a lot better in the six segments of the actual interview.
This won’t be a problem in the next interview as I will have the proper equipment.
So who do you think I should interview next? Seriously. Or subject area? Iraq – FEMA – Abortion – Gun control – etc?
It’s really, really good … i hope lots of people listen. And I am not saying that to be nice.
PLUS — YOU MADE JUAN COLE GIGGLE!
It’s clear to me that the government’s assesment of threats (and sources of them) is totally screwed up. The “Rita Weekend disaster” (reference to Jean Luc Godard’s movie) is yet another example of how the WoT has seriously distorted the government’s investment to protect its citizens.
A number of people could reasonably address this issue, I think (e.g., moving 2 million people out of town. In cars)
Great analogy. I saw that movie — oh — 36-37 years ago, and never could get it out of my head.
btw, it’s out in DVD now. I saw a blurb about it and recommended it to my daughter, who likes indy-type films.
came out that way because I was set up to use two cameras but had problems with one. The next interview will be two-camera and symmetrical. We also had problems with the lapel mikes and had to make do with the camera mike. That will also be remedied.
“Thanks for watching. Good night.” 🙂