> To be fair to Jennings, he probably meant that few American reporters
speak Arabic, not that few people in the world speak it. Which is the
scandal of most U.S. reporters abroad - they barely speak the
language of the target country (even in Canada, probably!),
You mean French or English?
It is notorious that long-time foreign correspondants for the NYT, the WP and the like in Russia know no Russian (much less Uzbek, etc.), a tradition that goes back some time to the glory days of Walter Duranty. Patrick Cockburn (Alex's brother) has some sharp comment on this in Getting Russia Wrong, similarly Stephen F. Cohen in several books.
jks
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