I followed Ghonim on the Friday noon broadcast

English translation: I followed with interest what Ghonim had to say in his noon interview on..

19:50 Nov 5, 2018
English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Journalism
English term or phrase: I followed Ghonim on the Friday noon broadcast
Hello everyone,

From the book Thank You for Being Late by Thomas Friedman.

No one has given better testimony to the difference between securing freedom from and freedom to than Wael Ghonim, aka “the Google guy,” who helped launch the revolution against the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in 2011. I was in Cairo at the time, and the day before Mubarak resigned ***I followed Ghonim on the Friday noon broadcast*** from Cairo on Al Arabiya satellite TV. He had just gotten released from jail and was full of anger against the regime and passion for the democratic revolution and the role that social media had played stoking it. But that revolution in the end got derailed by the failure of the progressive forces to unite, the desire by the Muslim Brotherhood to divert it into a religious movement, and the Egyptian Army’s ability to exploit the weakness of all these civil groups in order to maintain its grip on both the Egyptian deep state and its economy.

In December 2015, Ghonim, who has since moved to Silicon Valley, posted a TED talk that I wrote about in a column. In the talk, he asked what went wrong—squarely addressing this question: Is the Internet better for creating freedom from than freedom to? This is the essence of what he concluded: “I once said, ‘If you want to liberate a society, all you need is the Internet.’ I was wrong. I said those words back in 2011, when a Facebook page I anonymously created helped spark the Egyptian revo-lution. The Arab Spring revealed social media’s greatest potential, but it also exposed its greatest shortcomings. The same tool that united us to topple dictators eventually tore us apart.”

Does it mean that Mr. Friedman was the next interviewee on a TV program?
Or does it mean that Mr. Friedman took an interest in Mr. Ghonim by watching a TV program about him?
Or can it mean anything else?

Thank you.
Mikhail Korolev
Local time: 17:08
Selected answer:I followed with interest what Ghonim had to say in his noon interview on..
Explanation:
on Al Arabiya satellite TV

"I followed" in this context basically means to listen with interest or listen carefully to what someone has to say.

In this case Ghonim was being interviewed after Obama had made the first calls for Mubarak to step down

https://www.theguardian.com/world/blog/2011/feb/11/egypt-pro...

....the details of an interview Wael Ghonim, anointed by some as the voice of the revolution, is giving to al-Arabiya TV. For a bit of context, Ghonim had been criticised by some for telling people to go home and celebrate yesterday. Here's some excerpts from the interview:

I told people to go back home after Obama's speech because I was optimistic.

I demand the army guarantees that Mubarak will "never ever ever" return to the presidency.

We demand the ability to form political parties immediately. This is what this movement is about

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Note added at 3 hrs (2018-11-05 23:38:29 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

broadcast =aired/shown
an interview would not be described as a "show"


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 14 hrs (2018-11-06 10:25:27 GMT)
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meaning 11
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/follow
a. To watch or observe closely: followed the bird through binoculars.
b. To be attentive to; pay close heed to: too sleepy to follow the sermon.
c. To keep oneself informed of the course, progress, or fortunes of: follow the stock market; followed the local teams.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 day 3 hrs (2018-11-06 22:59:57 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------

Glad to have helped
Selected response from:

Yvonne Gallagher
Ireland
Local time: 14:08
Grading comment
Many thanks to everyone.
Thank you, Yvonne.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
4 +3I watched a TV broadcast aired on Friday afternoon, hosted by Ghonim
Oliver Simões
4 +3I followed with interest what Ghonim had to say in his noon interview on..
Yvonne Gallagher
4I was next, after Ghonim, on the Friday noon broadcast
Agneta Pallinder


  

Answers


23 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +3
I watched a TV broadcast aired on Friday afternoon, hosted by Ghonim


Explanation:
This is how I understand the sentence.

Oliver Simões
United States
Local time: 07:08
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in PortuguesePortuguese

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Ehsan Kiani: Not necessarily hosted by him though, the wirter has simply watched a tv show featuring him.
7 mins
  -> Yes, you're right. Thank you.

agree  Patricia Fierro, M. Sc.
8 mins

agree  Carol OConnor (X)
10 mins

agree  Tony M: Yes, because it says he followed him "...on ... satellite TV" and they wouldn't say that if he was literally following him in the studio
1 hr

agree  Jack Doughty
1 hr

disagree  Yvonne Gallagher: it's not hosted by Ghonim but an interview with him and it's at noon
3 hrs

disagree  Arabic & More: He was not the host.
8 hrs

neutral  philgoddard: I don't think we can be sure of this. "Followed" is a rather odd way of saying "watched". I think it could mean "was interviewed after".
13 hrs
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16 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
i followed ghonim on the friday noon broadcast
I was next, after Ghonim, on the Friday noon broadcast


Explanation:
I disagree with other contributors on this one. Reasons are several:
Wael Ghonim was a social media activist, not somebody with a regular slot on a satellite radio station. If you "followed" Ghonim in the sense of being a regular consumer of his output, this would be through his tweets and other social media.
More circumstantially, Friedman talks about Ghonim's mood, having just been released from prison, in a way that gives me the strong impression that they met in the radio studio, where Friedman's interview or talk followed that of Ghonim.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 16 hrs (2018-11-06 12:05:12 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

satellite TV, not satellite radio

Agneta Pallinder
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:08
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in SwedishSwedish, Native in EnglishEnglish
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

3 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +3
i followed ghonim on the friday noon broadcast
I followed with interest what Ghonim had to say in his noon interview on..


Explanation:
on Al Arabiya satellite TV

"I followed" in this context basically means to listen with interest or listen carefully to what someone has to say.

In this case Ghonim was being interviewed after Obama had made the first calls for Mubarak to step down

https://www.theguardian.com/world/blog/2011/feb/11/egypt-pro...

....the details of an interview Wael Ghonim, anointed by some as the voice of the revolution, is giving to al-Arabiya TV. For a bit of context, Ghonim had been criticised by some for telling people to go home and celebrate yesterday. Here's some excerpts from the interview:

I told people to go back home after Obama's speech because I was optimistic.

I demand the army guarantees that Mubarak will "never ever ever" return to the presidency.

We demand the ability to form political parties immediately. This is what this movement is about

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 3 hrs (2018-11-05 23:38:29 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

broadcast =aired/shown
an interview would not be described as a "show"


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 14 hrs (2018-11-06 10:25:27 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

meaning 11
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/follow
a. To watch or observe closely: followed the bird through binoculars.
b. To be attentive to; pay close heed to: too sleepy to follow the sermon.
c. To keep oneself informed of the course, progress, or fortunes of: follow the stock market; followed the local teams.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 day 3 hrs (2018-11-06 22:59:57 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------

Glad to have helped

Yvonne Gallagher
Ireland
Local time: 14:08
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Many thanks to everyone.
Thank you, Yvonne.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Christine Widjaya
37 mins
  -> Many thanks:-)

agree  Arabic & More
5 hrs
  -> Many thanks:-)

agree  Shekhar Banerjee: It may mean that Friedman followed all public things related to Ghonim right since the interview.
5 hrs
  -> Many thanks:-)

neutral  philgoddard: I think if he meant "with interest", he'd have said that.
10 hrs
  -> There is no need for native English to say it as it's included in meaning of "follow" here. Another example: follow the news=catch up with/listen/watch (with interest)
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