One of
the major television developments during the war in Iraq was the role of
transnational satellite networks in the Arab world. Media analysts say
these new players will have a profound influence on public opinion and
policy formation.
Of all the technological issues that arose out of the conflict in Iraq,
the most important may be "Arab networks...with Arab commentators covering
this war," David Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who
reported on the Vietnam conflict, told CNBC viewers.
Sarah Lawrence professor and Middle East expert Fawaz Gerges agrees.
"Arab satellite television stations have established themselves now as one
of the main sources for information for the Arab world," he says. "They're
challenging the hegemony of the American media."
The increasing presence and importance of Al Jazeera, a 24-hour,
Qatar-based news channel that reaches more than 45 million people in Arab
nations, raised several controversies during the war in Iraq. The first
was that Al Jazeera broadcast a view of the conflict very different from
its U.S. counterparts.
While U.S. television news media focused on military operations, Al
Jazeera was "presenting something of the violence, the effects, the
emotion" of the conflict, says Leila Hudson, assistant professor of Near
Eastern studies at the University of Arizona, who monitored war news on
U.S. and Arab networks.
This led to charges by U.S. officials and conservative commentators
that Al Jazeera was airing propaganda.
Untrue, says Lamis Andoni, a journalist who has worked for print and
broadcast media in the Middle East and the United States. Al Jazeera
broadcast statements from U.S. government officials, showed the Central
Command briefings and had a reporter embedded with U.S. troops, Andoni
says. The network showed "a broader picture" of the conflict than U.S.
news organizations, she says, because it also showed civilian casualties
and the destruction of water, electrical and hospital facilities.
Gerges says neither Al Jazeera nor U.S. networks did enough analysis of
the causes and consequences of reaction to the conflict. He is concerned
that the Arab satellite stations are advancing the Iraqi perspective and
do not "pretend to be objective," which was "doing a great deal of harm to
their own audience."
Media analysts say television news operations in the Arab world and the
United States would never present events or issues from the same
perspective, because they are trying to reach audiences with different
cultural experiences and frameworks. The fact that Al Jazeera offers "a
different perspective than CNN" should not be regarded as a problem, says
Mohammed el-Nawawy, a Stonehill College professor who has written about
coverage of the Middle East. "Each network is trying to appeal to its
audience."
U.S. network executives say the different perspectives offered by Al
Jazeera and other Arabic-language networks are valuable in their
deliberations about how to cover events in the Arab world.
"We have people monitoring Al Jazeera 24/7," says NBC News President
Neal Shapiro. "It's a good reminder to think about how another part of the
world sees the same story."
Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism,
says Al Jazeera and other Arabic-language networks help U.S. journalists
understand the "Rashomon quality of news"--the phenomenon of different
people witnessing the same event and coming away with widely varying
interpretations.
Al Jazeera is a CNN affiliate and has working relationships with a
number of U.S. networks. Other Arabic-language news operations have
similar arrangements, and their footage could be seen on U.S. television
during the war in Iraq.
Although U.S. government spokespersons have disparaged Al Jazeera's
coverage, it has been an intelligence tool for the United States. The
video feed from its rooftop cameras provided useful information for damage
assessment. In the early days of the conflict, Al Jazeera sometimes had
access to information before U.S. news media or the Pentagon did. The
Pentagon learned about the video of the U.S. prisoners of war from the
ambushed 507th Maintenance Company when Al Jazeera released an Iraqi TV
tape of their interrogation. Fox News reporter Major Garrett told viewers
that "senior military officials here at the Pentagon were very eager to
see the video and they came to our booth and asked for permission to view
it, because they had not seen it yet."
Al Jazeera's coverage of the war included much more graphic material
than was aired on U.S. networks. One reason, says Al Jazeera spokesman
Jihad Ballout, is that because of the long history of wars and turmoil in
the Arab world, its viewers have come to accept that pain, death and
destruction are part of the reality of combat.