"In the Arab world today, we get a moreinformed perspective than you do"

dahamsta

I intended slotting this into another thread revolving around propaganda, but nothing really popped out at me. I think it's an interesting perspective on reporting from, uh, the "other side", style of fing. Originally posted on Dave Farber's Interesting People list.

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Forwarded Message
From: Dr Mohammad Al-Ubaydli <mo@mo.md>
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 19:38:04 -0500
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: RE: [IP] Al-Jazeera in English

Dear Dave,
I've been doing a lot of listening, reading and thinking in the last few
weeks, thanks in large part to your list. Because of your comment below,
I'd like to share some of my thoughts with IPers. So, with your
permission, here I go:

In the Arab world today, we get a more informed perspective than you do.

It's a little bit of a disappointment for me to say this - I am
currently a guest in your beautiful country, and I came here because of
the value that you place on free speech and intellectual excellence, all
in the pursuit of better versions of the truth. I'm a scientist,
pursuing such truth is my job. But when it comes to political truth, I
think many Arab citizens today can have a more informed perspective than
Americans.

Don't get me wrong - that's not because my country is more democratic,
has better journalists, or more intelligent analysis. None of these is
true (not yet - but I remain hopeful for Bahrain's new democracy).

But we do see your news as well as our news as well as Israeli news. In
my (so far limited) experience of American life, Americans are extremely
sheltered in the news that they see. When I read Haartez, I learn about
Isrealis suffering from the conflict, I learn what they are worrying
about, I learn how they deal with their own extremists, and I learn
about their many citizens that would like to see peace. And I learn all
this from an Israeli perspective, so I hear a positive human side.

Americans do not seem to be learning such things about Arabs. Reading
British commentary does not count as getting "a different perspective".
Nor is French commentary, even though that small difference is still
enough to enrage many against your ally country. If any Arabic
perspectives ever get to American mainstream news, it is almost always
surrounded by commentary that it is propaganda, or at the very least
highly questionable.

Al-Jazeera has attracted a huge amount of this negative commentary, most
recently for showing the Americans hostages and their mistreatment. As
an Arab, I got to see this, you did not. I think that you should be
angry at Saddam Hussain, not Al-Jazeera. They are showing you the
mistreatment of a human being, so that you know it happened. Al-Jazeera
also shows footage every day showing the mistreatments of Palestinians
in the Occupied Territories. As an Arab, I get to see this, you very
rarely do. And Al-Jazeera shows Israelis being taken to hospital, their
friends, relatives and survivors crying. As an Arab, I get to see this,
you occasionally get to.

There are many people being killed today. Please, at least listen to
them.

Yesterday I listened to NPR / C-SPAN broadcasting a press conference in
Doha, held by two American commanders, and one British commander. It was
embarrassing to listen to the sycophancy and deferent nature of the
western journalists. Arab journalists are no better with our Arab
leaders, but we have dictators, and America is supposed to be liberating
us and teaching us democracy. This was not a good lesson.

A journalist from the Sun asked "Could you explain to us the feelings of
disgust that you felt as you saw your comrade paraded on television by
the Iraqi regime, and shown to the world on Al-Jazeera." (I'm only
quoting from memory here, but I'm pretty sure that I'm pretty close to
what was said.) He then asked the general whether he would declare
Al-Jazeera a "hostile station".

Since when has a democracy's freedom been protected by members of the
press asking softball questions of their leaders, and demanding that
other journalists be declared hostile?

Yesterday, only Al-Jazeera and Arabic members of the press were asking
difficult questions. Of course, you might say, these journalists are
against America's agenda. But these were fair questions, and your own
press was not asking them. Besides, I always pay particular attention to
the channel's coverage of Bahraini affairs - the channel is owned by
Qatar, and Qatar's ruling family does not like the Bahraini ruling
family. That means I get extremely useful coverage of my country's state
of affairs by following Al-Jazeera.

I do not think it is in Americans' interests to ignore such a valuable
resource given your mainstream media's insistence on bowing to your own
government.

Once again, I fear I've sent you a long message for the IP List. My
apologies for the length, but I hope that you can still share it. And I
pray that God have mercy on all those who have died in Middle East. May
it all end soon.

mohammad

Dr Mohammad Al-Ubaydli
e mo@mo.md
w www.mo.md

Victor

Well the good doctor does seem to be an interesting person. And while at times I turn into a news junkie, I do try to read around different papers and see different news channels (easier at 1 in the morning when ITV News and BBC News 24 and CBS are often available). A friend back from the States said CNN has been branded "Communist Network News" for occasionally (?) going against the grain.

Horsefumbler

I couldn't agree more with what he's saying. Sky news and the others just show the same sh*tty footage over and over. Nothing interesting just some interview with some dumbass army guy. And it always taken from the coalition side, the camera men are always alongside the coalition troops so you're getting a one sided perspective. It's normally just footage of tanks driving across the sand or something. The Al -Jazeera footage is far more interesting.

I'm not sure if the americans said it was a 'hostile media' but i heard Tommy Franks yesterday at an interview saying he didn't think it was a hostile media when he was asked the question so he was obviously told what to say on the matter

sceptre

I'm quite tempted to add Al-Jazeera to my Sky lineup just for the month. Abu Dhabi TV news is sometimes worth watching. Just for perspective you understand - and they seem to be getting quite a few scoops.

(and I've dusted off my Arabic course so I can understand what they're saying)

Dotsie~tmp

Aljaeera is gaining much respect in my opinion. They show the pictures and ask the questions. Recent POW footage for example. US sources have tried pin a bad reputation on them only to have western journalist to come and defend them (as happend on sky yesterday when one asked about hypocracy regrading their stance on Geneva Convention in CentCom briefing). Apparently Aljazeera has been something of a revolution in Arab nations since 9-11 when news had traditionally been cecsored and subject to much rhetoric, satellite TV has changed that.

Slutmonkey57b

The quality of journalism is of particular interest - it is strange to find that those journalists with the most freedom to report what they want seemingly have the least inclination to do so. It's embarrasing to watch press conferences in the US where questions are asked over and over again which only serve to be answered in the same fashion. I swear Rumsfeld and his general were asked 4 question in a row at the START of the press conference today which all had the exact same answer: "Things are proceeding according to plan. The plan is a good plan. We are making good progress, therefore the plan is working". And still the same questions came. "No, but REALLY. IS it a good plan? Are you SURE?"

It is worth remembering that Al-Jazeeira is run to a large degree by ex-BBC or BBC-trained staffers.

Corben Dallas

Its good that Dr Mohammad Al-Ubaydli has make the effort to take in coverage from Arabic,Isrealis and US TV.hes going to get three prob very different viewpoints there.

I think tho ppl in the EU and the US will have more infoformed view of what actually IS going on than ppl in the middle east who would only tune in to Al Jazeera and only get that perspective.
(Iraqi TV is beyond saving)

and the prespective would be > an Apache Attack helicopter that is shot down with a magic bullet from a (what looks like) a rusty Lee Enfield shot by an Old Farmer. HHHmmmmmm or how about a TV station thathas broadcast pics and interviews of US POW's. which is against the Geneva Convention. Now the TV station has to have some kind of editorial control and took the decesion to broadcast OR it doesnt have any editorial freedom and then its a Propoganda Channel supporting Saddam's regime.

also bear in mind Osama Bin Ladens TV station (i believe) of choice is Al Jazeera -its where the videos of his latest rants get broadcast first. <<<this says it all.

But i do feel that stations like Al Jazeera are giving Islamic ppl a warped slant of what is happening in the world and would not be inpedently informing them of what is actuallygoin on.

I do try to get a ballanced view of what is goin on, i would watch Sky, BBC (Newsnight), CH4 News,Irish News and because I have some French the French channel that comes on that community channel that rotates ROI french and Gernan news. Also that No Comment News is very good, theres no voice over so u can mind yur own mind up as to what yur seeing.

If Al Jazeera contiues to broadcast Allied POW pictures (against the Geneva Convention) then i can see it being taken off air.

ferdi

i couldnt have said it better myself. i constantly feel as if we are always getting half the story.

daveirl

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Victor

Originally posted by daveirl
No as discussed elsewhere making the video is against the Geneva Convention not Al'Jazeera. And you would have to take ever channel off the air for showing the Afghan POWs post 9-11 if this is the case.

That doesn't make it acceptable to show the images. The objective is to not make prisoners the object of public curiousity, this works at both ends. Some news channels are showing only distant shots ("POWs do exist") which I think are accpetable, but others are still showing "in their face" shots.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.