Priorities

Towards the end of Samantha Shapiro's NYT Magazine piece about al Arabiya, she talks to Norman Pattiz, the driving force behind al Hurra:

Officials in the State Department's public diplomacy division have argued for more direct engagement with the Arab media. But Norman Pattiz, a member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, who masterminded Al Hurra and Radio Sawa, told me he thinks that view is mistaken, because it ''presupposes that the indigenous media is the solution, not the problem.'' Pattiz speaks about the Arab media as a monolith. In a recently published essay, he wrote: ''Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya transcend traditional media roles. They function, in effect, as quasi-political movements, reflecting two of the defining characteristics of the Middle East today. One is the lack of political and press freedom. The other is Arab nationalism. Arab networks manifest both.'' He said Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya do this by covering news that Arab regimes suppress and stories that ''intensely arouse Arab passions,'' namely the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the war in Iraq.

So what did the monolithic, America-bashing, Arab problem-avoiding al Jazeera talk about last week?  Well, here are the most recent episodes of three of al Jazeera's most popular talk shows, all aired over the last week: 

First, The Opposite Direction (December 28) posed the question of "The Globalization of the Media" to an Iraqi writer and a Saudi academic, and asked whether the Arab media such as al Jazeera was part of the problem or part of the solution to the Arab condition.  As Faisal Al Qassem framed the discussion:  on the one hand, how could the United States talk about media freedoms given its own attacks on the Arab media, and why are some Arab newspapers more monarchical than the king [i.e. America] in their hostility towards the free Arab media and their incitement against it;  but on the other hand, why can't can't we admit that some Arab media have used the technologies of globalization to incite terrorism and extremism, and don't people have the right to fight against that it if it is happening?    Fascinating arguments, and not a little self-criticism, ensued.

Second, No Limits (January 2) featured a probing discussion of "Corruption and Unemployment in the Arab World."   Among the major reasons for Arab economic problems which emerged from Ahmad Mansour and his guest were authoritarian regimes and their corruption.   The only way Arabs can hope to improve the problem of unemployment and of economic stagnation, this program seemed to argue, is by breaking the co-dependent evils of authoritarianism and corruption.

Third, Open Dialogue (January 1) offered a free-wheeling debate over "The Arab Future and the Issue of Reform."  Ghassan bin Jadu and his two guests and a bunch of callers disagreed about a lot of things,especially over external intervention, but they all seemed quite sure that the Arabs desperately needed reform and change. 

Right, then. 

Meanwhile, Pattiz's baby, the American station Al Hurra, was very excited to be airing a videotape this week allegedly linking al Jazeera with Uday Hussein.    How productive.

UPDATE:  in case you're interested, here's what everyone's new favorite, Al Arabiya, highlights in the most recent episodes of its main political programs:

"The Neo-Conservatives:  who are they?  How do they think?"
"The future of the Middle East in 2005"
"The future of Turkey's relationship with the EU."

And an interview with Dr. Tareq al Suwaidan, a popular moderate Kuwaiti Islamist preacher; he looks a lot like Yusuf al Qaradawi to me, right down to the Muslim Brotherhood background, his own website, a reputation as a social conservative but political moderate, and his very own controversy over entry into the United States.  I thought Abd al Rahman Rashed hated those guys and wanted al Arabiya to offer an alternative to the Qaradawi types?  Doesn't bother me, obviously, but it doesn't quite fit the image Rashed and al Arabiya are selling to the West, does it? 

At any rate, some of these shows look interesting, I suppose, but you might notice a certain lack of internal critique of the Arab status quo, intense interest in democratic reform, or that sort of thing. 

Comments

[praktike]

I think you'll like this piece:
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=57142&d=6&m=1&y=2005

(via John Burgess ox xrdarabia.org)

[Nur al-Cubicle]

Adel Eidane, Kuwait correspondent for al Arabiya, was arrested today in Kuwait after the network broadcast the story of a clash between an armed group and government security forces. The story included news of the discovery of arms and ammunition inside an abandoned car south of Kuwait City. The story was denied by the Kuwaiti official news agency KUNA.

Do al Hurra reporters ever get arrested? Is arrest a badge of the free press?