We're sure to hear a bit more about the march of freedom when George W. Bush delivers his State of the Union address Wednesday night. But in all that liberty spreading and freedom advancing the Bush administration likes to promote, there seems to be at least one right that the White House isn't much interested in exporting to other countries: freedom of the press.
As the New York Times reports it, the administration is pressuring the government of Qatar to sell Al-Jazeera, and administration officials are apparently in deep debate with themselves over whether they should try to "shut down" the network altogether. That's not the kind of thing freedom marchers usually do, but the administration is apparently worried that, even if Qatar sells Al-Jazeera to private owners, the network still might not be to its liking.
And what is the administration's grievance with Al-Jazeera, exactly? The Times says that Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell have all "complained heatedly to Qatari leaders that Al-Jazeera's broadcasts have been inflammatory, misleading, and occasionally false, especially on Iraq." Of course, one might also argue that the statements of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell have been "inflammatory, misleading and occasionally false" -- especially on Iraq.
But putting all that aside -- and that's what we're supposed to do now, isn't it, Sen. Lieberman? -- can the administration articulate a complaint about Al-Jazeera that wouldn't apply with equal force to, say, Fox News? Well, no, at least not if the Times' report is any indication.
Fox clearly has the "inflammatory, misleading and occasionally false" part down pat. As for the administration's other complaints about Al-Jazeera? The Times says that the White House is unhappy about Al-Jazeera's "repeated showings of taped messages by Osama bin Laden" and its emphasis on "civilian casualties" in Iraq. Fox may not be guilty of these wrongs, exactly -- although we could have sworn that we've seen bin Laden on Fox now and then -- but it certainly has engaged in its pro-war analogues. How many times did Fox replay the tape of that plane hitting the World Trade Center, of the towers falling, or of the hole in the side of the Pentagon? And just how does Fox dole out its airtime when there's a choice between highlighting the civilian casualties in Iraq and paying tribute to U.S. soldiers who have died there?
We're not saying that Al-Jazeera makes a better set of editorial choices than Fox does, or that the citizens of the world ought to be watching one of the networks rather than the other. We're just saying that we agree with a speaker we heard on Jan. 20, a fellow who said that the institutions of free countries "may reflect customs and traditions very different from our own," and that America's role should be to "help others find their own voice, attain their own freedom, and make their own way."
-- Tim Grieve
Qatar's quest: Finding a buyer for Al Jazeera |
| By Steven R. Weisman The New York Times
Monday, January 31, 2005 |
Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and other Bush administration officials have complained heatedly to Qatari leaders that Al Jazeera's broadcasts have been inflammatory, misleading and occasionally false, especially on Iraq. The pressure has been so intense, a senior Qatari official said, that the government is accelerating plans to put Al Jazeera on the market, though Bush administration officials concede that a privately owned station in the region may be no better, from their point of view.
"We have recently added new members to the Al Jazeera editorial board, and one of their tasks is to explore the best way to sell it," said the Qatari official, who said he could be more candid about the situation if he was not identified. "We really have a headache, not just from the United States but from advertisers and from other countries as well." Asked whether the sale might dilute Al Jazeera's content, the official said, "I hope not."
Estimates of Al Jazeera's audience range from 30 million to 50 million, putting it well ahead of its competitors. But that success does not translate into profitability, and the station relies on a big subsidy from the Qatari government, which in the past has explored ways to sell it. The official said Qatar hoped to find a buyer within a year.
Its coverage has disturbed not only Washington but also Arab governments from Egypt to Saudi Arabia. With such a big audience, but a lack of profitability, it is not clear who might be in the pool of potential buyers, or how a new owner might change the editorial content.
U.S. officials have been reluctant to talk about the station, being sensitive to charges of trying to suppress free expression. Officials at the State and Defense departments and at the U.S. Embassy in Qatar were reluctant to comment.
However, some U.S. officials acknowledged that the well-publicized U.S. pressure on the station - highlighted when Qatar was not invited to a summit meeting on the future of democracy in the Middle East last summer - has drawn charges of hypocrisy, especially in light of repeated calls by President George W. Bush for greater freedom and democracy in the region.
"It's completely two-faced for the United States to try to muzzle the one network with the most credibility in the Middle East, even if it does sometimes say things that are wrong," an Arab diplomat said. "The administration should be working with Al Jazeera and putting people on the air."
In fact, since the Iraq war, Powell and even Rumsfeld have been interviewed by Al Jazeera, though Cheney and Bush have not. But when the interim government of Iraq kicked Al Jazeera out of the country last August, the Bush administration uttered little criticism.
The administration's pressure thus encapsulates the problems of "public diplomacy," the term for the uphill efforts by Washington to sell U.S. policies in the region.
Some administration officials acknowledge that their "public diplomacy" system is fundamentally broken, but there is disagreement on how to fix it. Two years ago, the United States began its own Arab television network, Al Hurra, but officials say it has yet to gain much of a following.
Among the broadcasts criticized by the United States were repeated showings of taped messages by Osama bin Laden and, more specifically, the reporting early last year, before Al Jazeera was kicked out of Iraq, of the journalist Ahmed Mansour, which stressed civilian casualties during an assault on Falluja. The network also reports passionately about the Palestinian conflict.
Some U.S. officials said that Mansour had been removed from that assignment, but a spokesman for Al Jazeera in Qatar, Jihad Ballout, said that was "utterly false."
© da TIMZE
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