My article about the al-Hurra controversy should be up later this afternoon at the Guardian's Comment is Free site. I suggest that with Larry Register's ouster and the appointment of Danny Nassif as his replacement, al-Hurra's transformation into an Arabic-language TV Marti is nearly complete. You know TV Marti - the anti-Castro station beloved of conservatives and Cuban exiles which maintains extravagant budgets year after year even though nobody in Cuba ever sees it. A fine use of American tax dollars, no doubt, and a fine symbol of the Bush administration's real commitments in the so-called war of ideas. I'll provide a direct link if and when I get internet access this afternoon. And as a side note, I'll get back to regular blogging here if and when the accursed Comcast gets the internet working in my new house. I can hear DC locals giggling even as I type this...
UPDATE: here's the link to the article. Here are some excerpts:
On June 8, Larry Register announced his resignation from the troubled American Arabic-language satellite television station al-Hurra in the wake of a relentless campaign for his scalp by conservative journalists, members of congress, and disgruntled stalwarts of al-Hurra's previous, failed incarnation. The campaign recalls a similar sliming campaign against Alberto Fernandez, the state department's best Arabic-speaking public diplomat, crucified in the conservative media for an out of context snippet taken from one of his hundreds of live media appearances. Register's resignation likely seals the fate of al-Hurra, which looks ever more like Radio and TV Marti - the anti-Castro stations beloved of American conservatives and Cuban exiles which maintains exorbitant budgets year after year even though hardly any Cubans ever tune in.
....Overall, al-Hurra came across as a third-rate Lebanese TV station rather than America's flagship public diplomacy enterprise. By 2006 it had become clear that al-Hurra had failed to win any significant audience or generate any meaningful political debate. Before conservatives suddenly decided to go after Register, it was rather hard to find even a single person not on al-Hurra's payroll with a good word to say about it....
After a scathing Government Accountability Office report criticised the station's management and performance, Harb left under a cloud of criticism. His departure, along with the replacement of the uber-partisan Ken Tomlinson as chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, offered al-Hurra a fresh start. Larry Register, an old CNN hand, was brought in to try and salvage the sinking station.
.....
His attempt to transform al-Hurra into something worthwhile triggered an endless deluge of savage articles in the Wall Street Journal by the non-Arabic-speaking journalist Joel Mowbray, presumably fueled by leaks from still fuming members of al-Hurra's old regime (Tomlinson bragged on Fox News that he "stood virtually alone in trying to expose this inside government"). And so, in an impressively short time, Register's support in congress and the BBG crumbled, and he quit.
.....
Register's fate demonstrates that trying to produce a professional news product for the American government means career suicide, and few are likely to try again any time soon. Just like public diplomats after the Fernandez incident, al-Hurra staff will always look over their shoulders in fear of a conservative crusade, and will be unlikely to take risks or even try to put forward interesting news or political arguments. Clearly desperate to get an Arabic speaker - any Arabic speaker - into Register's job (his lack of Arabic proved his Achilles heel), the BBG chose the Lebanese director of Radio Sawa's news, Danny Nassif, to take over, at least temporarily. With this return to the old regime, al-Hurra's transformation into an Arab TV Marti seems complete.
Read the whole thing over at the Guardian's Comment is Free.
Nice piece - although the difference between TV/Radio Marti is that it cannot actually been seen in Cuba for technical reasons - it basically transmits to a lot of empty ocean. Al-Hurra actually CAN be seen quite easily in the Arab world - it is on both Nilesat and Arabsat - it is just that no one wants to. I don't know which case is more pathetic: broadcasting to empty space or putting something which can be easily seen that no one wants to.
Posted by: Ghurab al-Bain | June 15, 2007 at 12:36 PM
Hi Marc- your Guardian CIF article is excellent. I wrote something for the UK-based web magazine 21stCenturySocialism a couple of months ago on the same subject:
Sell Me Your Ears
Under globalised capitalism, money can buy many things. But, as US policymakers are discovering to their increasing frustration, even $650 million can’t buy a credulous audience for their message to the world.
The Al Hurra TV station, which broadcasts in Arabic to the Middle East, has a noble mission statement:
“The channel is dedicated to presenting accurate, balanced and comprehensive news. Alhurra endeavors to broaden its viewers’ perspectives, enabling them to make more informed decisions.”
It is hard to argue with that. Except that when vying for increased funding, the committee which runs the station, the US Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), explained its mission in a rather different way:
“We have become convinced that to advance U.S. foreign policy goals, we must dramatically improve our performance in key markets across the globe.”
On its website, the station describes its management and funding arrangements with a certain coyness:
“Alhurra is operated by non-profit corporation ‘The Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc.’ (MBN). MBN is financed by the American people through the U.S Congress.
“MBN receives this funding from the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), an independent and autonomous federal agency.”
This is stretching the truth somewhat. Under the USA’s 1998 Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act, eight of the nine governors of the BBG are appointed by the President of the United States of America. The ninth governor is the US Secretary of State, currently Ms Condoleeza Rice.
Financially, the governors have been highly successful. Official US government spending on the international broadcasting media run by the BBG has risen from $420 million in 2000 to $650 million in 2006-2007, with a proposed increase to $670 million next year- and these figures do not include the projects financed through the US government’s National Endowment for Democracy and the quaintly-named US Institute for Peace, nor the covert projects of the CIA. This increased funding has enabled the BBG to greatly increase the coverage and variety of its broadcasting channels.
But in respect of advancing US foreign policy goals, the BBG has enjoyed what might be described as negative success...
More:
http://21stcenturysocialism.com/article/sell_me_your_ears_01452.html
I'd be interested in your thoughts on the issues raised in the piece.
Posted by: Hilary | June 15, 2007 at 06:35 PM
Marc, for a guy who claims to specialize in American "public policy" promotion or whatever, you sure as hell seem to be aligned with the other team, to me. Are you sure it isn't Arab "public policy" that you attempt to promote in the west?
What am I missing? You don't really seem much different from Josh what's his name, the US professor who is an a paid Syrian mouthpiece.
You know the biggest problem with promotion of US public policy? The fact that guys like you have jobs. Why hasn't anyone dis-invited you to be heard on the issue, yet? Are they really that fucking dense, in DC?
I'm sorry if I'm being rude, but it really is pretty alarming that you are even able to find work in your so-called field of expertise. Al Hurra is not the best evidence of US failure - you are.
Posted by: Craig | June 15, 2007 at 07:09 PM
And another thing... was it really necessary to engage in America-bashing in a UK paper that is famous for it? Is that your idea of American "public diplomacy"? To run down your own country in the foreign press? Well, good job, man!
Look at your commentators and what they say about the US, and you can see what a success you are, no!?
Your biggest fans are self-loathing lunatic leftists and Arab bigots. You haven't noticed?
Posted by: Craig | June 15, 2007 at 07:15 PM
Good god "Craig" you're like a caricature of a human being. I mean wow. Honestly, making a joke about Anne Coulter would be a little redundant at this point. I'm sorry if "I'm being rude", but you are just plain ridiculous.
My apologies to Prof. Lynch if this post elicits further nonsense of the close-minded variety, but as a fellow eph, I feel compelled to politely tell this "Craig" guy to get bent.
Posted by: Geof | June 15, 2007 at 11:56 PM
Geof - don't worry, Craig is my personal troll. We keep him around because he's deeply funny... nobody takes him seriously. He keeps threatening to stop reading, but somehow never does!
Posted by: aardvark | June 16, 2007 at 12:30 PM
I think your piece raises an interesting point - the use of the appellation "Arabic-speaking." You mention that Joel Mowbray doesn't speak Arabic - fine enough - but you do so with the implicit aim of demeaning his ability to offer criticism of Register's leadership at Al-Hurra. You also mention that Register's lack of Arabic proved to be his Achilles Heal.
The question I would like to ask is whether one need be a Arabic speaker to either run a network like Al-Hurra or offer criticism of its management. To be honest, I would rather have a seasoned broadcast executive (Register) who doesn't speak Arabic than a fluent native with little or poor broadcasting experience. I would also suggest that it is possible to offer criticism without being an Arabic speaker, although I would be careful to make sure I was on very firm ground re: translated material.
This links into a general concern I have about "Arabic-speaker" being some sort of weird talisman required to comment on anything relating to the Arab world. Am I better off speaking Arabic? Sure, I love the language and it gives me access to all sorts of material that would be a pain in the ass to have translated and people who don't speak English or French. On the other hand, you have to resist the temptation to pull it out like a trump card in order to bully your opponents with it. Juan Cole does this all the time, even when he is clearly correct on the merits, and it really bugs me.
BTW, Marc - you linked last week via del.icio.us to Jim Mattis' new reading list for MARCENTCOM. You knocked the section on the Middle East, deservedly, for leading off with Patai's book. If you could put five to ten books (or perhaps also articles) on the list, with the guidance that this should be something substantial and informative, but also accessible, what would you suggest?
Posted by: Charlie | June 18, 2007 at 01:20 PM
Charlie - fair points, both of them. On the Arabic question, at the extremes I definitely agree with you: better a talented newsman like Register than a poorly qualified Arabic speaker like, well, Harb and Nassif. But wouldn't it be better to get both? Surely there are talented, qualified Arabic speakers - it isn't like the job doesn't pay well or offer professional challenges. The reason I mentioned that Mowbray doesn't speak Arabic is just that he made Register's lack of Arabic an issue, and then offered a series of claims about the station's programming that he himself was absolutely unqualified to make. All he had were snippets handpicked by Register's enemies, which would make a responsible journalist blush.
Re the book list, that's a very good question. Let me think about it and maybe I'll try to do a post on it since a lot of people would probably find it useful.
Posted by: aardvark | June 18, 2007 at 02:55 PM
I dunno. There's some pretty ferocious competition for talent right now - Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya want to hang on to their people (and AJ just launched an all-documentary channel, as well as AJ English), Future TV is going to run a 24-hour news channel, there's the new BBC Arabic and the Russian Arabic news channel and at least one other all-Arabic 24-hour news channel that I know of, and a lot of the new channels are doing at least some news broadcasts or documentaries or talk shows or current affairs shows... Lots of opportunities for people to make names for themselves. And that's without being associated with an American propaganda channel, which can't be good for the long-term career prospects of an Arabic-speaking journalist.
Posted by: Tom Scudder | June 22, 2007 at 11:36 AM