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Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September/October 2007, pages 24-25 Special Report Al Jazeera English: The Brave New Channel They Don’t Want You to SeeBy Delinda C. Hanley
THE NEW Al Jazeera English-language news channel, launched in November 2006, can be seen in 85 million households around the world, in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. In Israel alone, half a million viewers tune in to watch the station. That makes it one of the three biggest global English-language, 24-hour news channels—and the only one headquartered in the Middle East. This makes its reporting on Iraq and the Arab-Israeli conflict more relevant and more immediate to Israeli viewers than that of its closest rivals, BBC World and CNN International. Even though the Washington Report’s office is just a little over a mile from Al Jazeera English’s downtown Washington, DC studio, we’d have to move to Toledo, OH or Burlington, VT to actually watch it on our television set. So far those two cities are the only ones in North America whose cable TV stations offer viewers Al Jazeera English. Our magazine’s publisher, Andrew Killgore, executive editor Richard Curtiss, managing editor Janet McMahon and this writer spent a fascinating afternoon sneaking a look at what everyone else in the world can watch whenever they want—unless they happen to live in “the land of the free and home of the brave.” According to Al Jazeera English’s U.N. and New York correspondent, Mark Seddon, who has reported for BBC from Iraq, North Korea and China and forSky News from Yemen, and its regional news editor for the Americas, Kieran Baker, a former CNN editor and producer, the plucky news station has attracted veteran journalists from around the world. Using a forthright style and a willingness to tackle taboo subjects, the new channel hopes to revolutionize English-language news the same way Al Jazeera revolutionized Arab-language TV a decade ago. British journalist David Frost, formerly with BBC; former CNN producer James Wright; Riz Khan and Veronica Pedrosa, former anchors at CNN International; and Dave Marash, a former correspondent for ABC News’ “Nightline,” are just a few of the 800 employees from 55 countries who have gathered to build this globally minded television news station. Marash, who now co-anchors the network’s Washington, DC studio, described Al Jazeera English’s lofty goals: “We want to give the most sophisticated, most nuanced and most global view of the day’s events.” “Washington Report readers know there is a critical need for serious impartial television news,” Seddon told us. U.S. news has become “infotainment,” he said, and networks often dumb down the news. In hopes of attracting wider audiences, mainstream news focuses on a “hero of the week” or troubled stars. “Economic interests drive programming and, naturally, advertisers have their favorite issues,” Seddon pointed out. “Look at the amount of medical news and health information we see on the nightly news, which is mainly sponsored by pharmaceutical advertisers.” Because Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani, has given both Al Jazeeras a royal charter—much like the BBC’s with the British government—Al Jazeera English is free from the economic pressures that drive U.S. media. “This station may be the last bastion of public broadcasting,” Baker noted. “These days, most networks are closing international bureaus because they are too expensive,” he added, “but Al Jazeera has correspondents around the world who really know their region.” As a result, during Israel’s invasion of Lebanon last summer, Al Jazeera English broadcast gripping scenes from both countries, unlike the other news networks, which reported mostly from Jordan and Israel. Seddon described Al Jazeera English as “the most ambitious TV project of this century.” Instead of being run out of a central station, he explained, its news day “follows the sun”—with programming beginning in Doha, Qatar, then shifting to London, on to Washington, DC, and ending in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In addition to its four broadcast centers, Seddon said, Al Jazeera English has 21 supporting bureaus—in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia—which gather and produce news reports. “The station seeks out interesting stories neglected by the Western-oriented media,” Baker told us. “Al Jazeera English’s stories come from underreported regions—in Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa—as well as the Middle East and G-8 countries [Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom, and the United States].” As former Sky News personality Barbara Serra put it, “If it’s newsworthy, it gets on the air, whether it’s [George] Bush or [Osama] bin Laden.” Of the two, in fact—and contrary to what Americans have been led to believe—President Bush has been featured 400 times more frequently. Another phrase which has become an Al Jazeera English favorite is: “Every angle, every side.” Like its Arabic-language parent station, Al Jazeera English tries, with remarkable success, to provide “one side and then the other side,” and “an opinion and the other opinion.” Like many other Americans who’ve turned to the Internet—or better yet, the Washington Report—for reliable international news, our staff had looked forward to watching Al Jazeera English on our local cable service. We positively yearned for that opportunity as we sat in on Riz Khan’s interview with Harpers Magazine Washington, DC editor Ken Silverstein, who went undercover to write an exposé called “Their men in Washington: Undercover with DC’s Lobbyists for Hire.” In his daily show Khan allows viewers from around the world to question newsmakers like Silverstein directly—via phone, e-mail, SMS, video-mail and fax. We wished Americans could discuss these topics, even if it makes government officials go ballistic. Al Jazeera’s Arabic service has been demonized by the U.S. government due to its disconcerting on-the-ground reports from battlefields in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Lebanon. As a result, a minuscule number of U.S. government officials or cable subscribers have vehemently objected to Al Jazeera English, effectively keeping it off U.S. cable and satellite systems. Allan Block, owner of Ohio’s Buckeye Cable systems, is an exception. He is happy to carry Al Jazeera English, and dismisses criticism of Al-Jazeera as “lunatic ranting.” Some lucky U.S. officials can watch Al Jazeera English on the Pentagon’s closed-circuit television system. But most English-speaking policymakers and pundits in the nation’s capital—where it would do the greatest good—have no access to Al Jazeera’s news and views. Getting on the air in North America involves carriage and distribution deals that won’t happen without input from consumers. Only popular demand will force U.S. and Canadian cable providers to eventually include Al Jazeera English in their service plans. Would-be viewers should call or write the large U.S. cable providers, such as Time Warner and Comcast, as well as their local cable companies. Dish satellite network, which reaches more than 12 million subscribers in the U.S., carries the Arabic-language channel but not Al Jazeera English. They need to hear from you as well. Until then, the only way to watch Al Jazeera English on TV is to buy a satellite dish from Globecast, a division of France Telecom. Call 1-888-988-5288 to order a World TV Home Satellite System for about $179, or order from the Web site: <www.globecastworldtv.com>. Once the system is installed, viewers can watch Al Jazeera English on the “Free-to-Air channel.” More than 20,000 U.S. viewers are sidestepping these obstacles by paying $6 a month for the full channel to be streamed to their computers. Others are accessing individual broadcasts via the video-sharing site YouTube. But for those of us who want to watch Al Jazeera English on our TV, it’s time to start making those calls. “I think the line about the ‘brave little channel they wouldn’t let you see’ appeals to something in the American spirit,” Marash told the Financial Times. “I am optimistic that we will succeed in America. Delinda Hanley is news editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
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