Is Al Jazeera Really All That Tricky?
August 23, 2006 at 8:52 am
David Ignatius writes in today’s Washington Post on ”Al-Jazeera’s Tricky Balancing Act.” He seems stumped:
“how complicated it has become for al-Jazeera to cover this part of the world. … tricky problems for an Arab satellite network…. the world is damned complicated … it’s very hard to know who the good guys and bad guys are.”
Having spent a fair share of my time watching al-Jazeera when I worked for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the U.S. agency that runs America’s international broadcasting operations, I can’t share Ignatius’ confusion.
What did I witness? As I’ve written before: Constant victim-based images that peddled on what America was doing to Iraqis and what Israel was doing to Palestinians. I saw program after program, promo after promo, feeding into the notion that Arabs are being routinely victimized by the rest of the world, catering to an overwhelmingly anti-American audience. And how ”tricky” is it to understand this: At the same time in early 2005 that the Senate was holding confirmation hearings for Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State, al-Jazeera was airing a documentary re-enactment of Abu Gharib.
The network’s coverage is actually quite simple. They’ve made it easy on us.
Ingnatius writes that Ahmed Sheikh, the editor in chief of al-Jazeera television. “told me he had been mulling this week how al-Jazeera should cover” the fifth anniversary of September 11.
If it’s anything like the way it covered the fourth anniversary, it gets even simpler. Last year on September 11th, al-Jazeera showed the Michael Moore film “Fahrenheit 9/11.”
Matt said,
August 23, 2006 @ 9:56 am
As opposed to Fox News, which has racial profiling advocates on? That sounds like it’s catering to the American hate-the-brown-people crowd.
[tangent: Aside from the somewhat racist undertones, it’s a dumb idea to racially profile at airport security. It means that the terrorists will recruit people who look like they fit in with ‘normal’ white Americans. The only way to be truly safe is to screen and suspect everyone.]
Gary said,
August 23, 2006 @ 11:45 am
Matt,
That’s an assinine argument against profiling (racial or otherwise). So far, not one homicide bomber has been an 80 year old white woman. I dare to speculate that recruiting in this demographic would be quite difficult for the Islamic extremists. It’s not “dumb” to look at historical data and use that information to adjust our security accordingly. There’s nothing “racial” about it. It’s just common sense.
erljr said,
August 23, 2006 @ 1:20 pm
How did this turn into a story about profiling?
Everyone that fits into the muslim extremist profile should be checked out. The rest, including 80 year old grandmas, should be checked out randomly.
I often make or change flights at the last minute; and I am picked out of the crowd every time I do it. And I never complain. And I shouldn’t.
Cog said,
August 23, 2006 @ 3:47 pm
The “resistance” in Iraq was shaped in a large part by Al Jazeera’s coverage. The first few years of the Iraq war Al Jazeera sold the resistance as valiant holy warriors standing up to an unjust foreign occupation.
If there is a faux photography scandal now, Al Jazeera regularly recycled photos of dead women and children to use for its news stories. On the website, the same images would be used to describe attacks that happened much later, with virulent anti-American captions. Al Jazeera regularly quoted individuals on the street who espoused conspiracy theories with no proof, and always a very strong hatred/opposition to American forces. There were Quran desecration accusations, rape accusations, indescriminate killing of civilian accusations, all from “civilains” so Al Jazeera never had to follow up on the claims made on their airwaves, and on their website. From 2003-04, I counted 65 straight anti-American quotes from people on the street in Al Jazeera articles on Iraq online. I wanted to see how long the streak would last, but I had to travel abroad.
Al Jazeera was labeled as the insurgent channel because when “holy warriors” kidnapped civilians, attacked government officials, or killed Iraqi or coalition soldiers, their subsequent videos usually made it to Al Jazeera. And despite the objections of a few senior Al Jazeera officials, most were aired without editing. I think the responsibilty Al Jazeera holds for the devestation beset upon Iraqi civilians began to dawn on the satellite channel in 2005. There was a decided move not to air as many kidnapping and martyrdom videos. If they were aired, they would be cut slightly and Al Jazeera officials would claim they were edited to only show segments with news value.
The sad fact is that as bad as sectarian violence is inside Iraq now, if the violence was just contained to elements inside Iraq there might have been a chance for an eventual peaceful resolution. With Iran and Syria actively supporting the insurgency, and elements inside Saudi Arabia and Al Jazeera actively promoting jihad to the Middle East and North Africa, a Democratic Iraq may not be possible.