Yesterday I got a press release from al-Hurra announcing the guest of the upcoming episode of Robert Satloff's "Inside Washington", complete with a transcript of the program. That's good - as long as I've been writing about the absence of transparency at the station, as best as I can recall this is the first transcript of any kind I've ever been offered by al-Hurra. On the other hand, the featured guest was... John Bolton. Bolton, of course, is particularly disliked in the Arab world, and his complaints about anti-American bias at the UN will repel more Arab viewers than it could hope to impress. But the Wall Street Journal loves him... and of course that's the only audience which really matters for al-Hurra anymore.
I did notice, thanks to Kim Elliott, that a House Report has recommended an appropriation of $2.2 million to fund streaming video for al-Hurra and a 60 day archive of all their programs, as well as another $2 million for the random translation of 20 hours a week of its content to be posted on the al-Hurra website. This sort of initiative was exactly the one good thing which I could see coming out of the al-Hurra trainwreck, and I hope it goes forward. That's the only way to allow analysts on all sides of the spectrum to have access to the information they need to form judgements about the station's content - which might not be exactly what Ken Tomlinson and friends really wanted, at the end of the day.
Oh, why don't they go for a epic celebrity showdown that will draw millions of viewers: John Bolton vs. George Galloway. I think someone will be left a mess o' quiverin' popinjay.
Posted by: Nur al-cubicle | June 23, 2007 at 04:29 PM
Al Hurraha is nothing but a propaganda machine for the American government,it is failure and it will never be anything but failure,just look at their rating it is almost zero, and Iam glad it is that way...
Posted by: almutanaqal | June 23, 2007 at 07:17 PM
Awabic iz tuff 2 speek!
Posted by: Bobby Satloff | June 26, 2007 at 01:34 PM
It is a big waste of money. Tom Morgan the director in Dubai has been absconding from duty for the past three years the majority of the time .... and surprise he is still being paid in excess of $150,000 a year. Also, the Technical Director in Dubai Vivek Chopra a 32 year old INDIAN REAL IDIOT who knows nothing about broadcasting or IT and who has no managerial experience hires useless guys like himself and has been having a blast wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars of US tax payers money. In fact this useless 32 year old IDIOT is still ranking on the top 100 most highly paid federal government contractors for the past 4 years ... I believe the US Congress should fire Chopra as he is far more harmful to US interests than Register..........
Posted by: James Coates | August 22, 2007 at 09:29 PM
With so much going on the Hurra scene, would help if you could give us the latest update/commentary on Al-Hurra? Any latest inside information and what efforts they're undertaking to revamp the station, if any?
Posted by: Khaled | May 04, 2008 at 05:56 PM