Will tips from The Daily Show’s Samantha B help Al Jazeera reach Americans?
There are still no cable companies in the US with the courage to carry Al Jazeera. That will take more than a facelift by the Daily Show’s Samantha B, even though she “nails it”
Americans seem to have figured out that the administration has lied to them about everything else but some things have just become “truths”. One of those is that Al Jazeera is the mouthpiece for terrorists.
In an interview by Jeffrey Brown, aired on the Newshour, Marwan Kraidy, Arab Media and Public Life Project and Nigel Parsons, Managing Director, Al Jazeera English explain Al Jazeera and why they think the US cable companies will not air it.
JEFFREY BROWN:
But longtime critics of the original Arabic Al Jazeera will be watching carefully. American officials have repeatedly taken shots at Al Jazeera, treating it as a forum for terrorists
Footage of Donald Rumsfeld criticising Al Jazeera
JEFFREY BROWN:
Just last month on the campaign trail, President Bush had this to say.
GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States:
Another reason why is that terrorists are trying to influence public opinion. They carry video cameras, film their atrocities, e-mail images and video clips to Middle Eastern cable networks like Al Jazeera.
JEFFREY BROWN:
The reputation here in the United States is we see it when it carries the messages of Osama, and it gets a reputation for being a kind of mouthpiece for terrorists.
NIGEL PARSONS:
And he is part of the story, and we have a brief, as journalists, to show all sides of every story, you know, to present all the facts. It’s not a question of whether you agree or don’t agree. I mean, you know, Al Jazeera shows hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours of George Bush.
JEFFREY BROWN:
The reputation here in the United States is we see it when it carries the messages of Osama, and it gets a reputation for being a kind of mouthpiece for terrorists.
NIGEL PARSONS:
And he is part of the story, and we have a brief, as journalists, to show all sides of every story, you know, to present all the facts. It’s not a question of whether you agree or don’t agree. I mean, you know, Al Jazeera shows hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours of George Bush.
Another criticism of Al Jazeera is that they show bodies of Iraqi’s who have been killed by coalition forces. This too, they justify as part of the story, which it is.
US media outlets were all told not to show flag draped coffins of US soldiers who were killed in Iraq, which was entirely a PR decision. Pictures of returning coffins were largely thought to instrumental in turning Americans against the war in Vietnam. So actually, it was a propaganda decision. And every single US news outlet obliged. It is impossible to say whether Al Jazeera provides a mouthpiece for propaganda, but it would be easy to make a case for any US media outlet being a propaganda mouthpiece of the US government. That is why none of them showed the coffins returning.
MARWAN KRAIDY:
Well, officially the cable companies are saying it’s a business decision. However, I am sure that the business concerns are legitimate, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some political issues there.