Have blogs and online media helped people get more unfiltered information from the Middle East?
Alpher: Without doubt. We chose the medium of Internet because it enables us to bring our message to an unlimited audience. Abunimah: I do not think of EI as a blog. We predate the blog phenomenon, and we see ourselves as something a lot more comprehensive and complete. I do believe that EI has had a huge impact though. Obviously thousands of people read it, but also because we are there and we are seen as consistent, we get contacted a lot by mainstream media for interviews and opinions. Also, people take our content and reproduce it in print. So EI reaches people through several different routes. I think blogs in general are overrated. The sheer proliferation of them, for one thing, means that it is very hard to see them as a true alternative. Although a few blogs I have seen are interesting, many are quite dull, and seem to be more interested in point scoring against other blogs. A blog is good because its content is good. In which case that same content could be delivered in any nu
