Al-Jazeera

Hugh Miles takes us behind the scenes of this controversial Arab TV network, including it's history, and reputation among viewers in the Middle East. After reading this book, I'm looking forward to re-watching Control Room, this time with a better understanding of what this network is all about.

In the West Al-Jazeera is portrayed as extremely biased, somewhat like a "Fox News" for the Arab world. The more accurate analogy is probably that of an Arabic "BBC World News". Coincidentally, a lot of Al-Jazeera's early employees came from the BBC.

What Al-Jazeera is known for is covering stories from all sides, which basically means they offend all sides! The reasons why Al-Jazeera has been accuse of bias against the West, are well-documented. In terms of war coverage I think it comes down to opposing goals: the US administration wants coverage to shield the American public from the ugliness and the destruction brought about by military action, Al-Jazeera shows what war is like for the population on the ground. On the other hand , the Arab public are suspicious of the network, especially its propensity for interviewing Israelis/Jews, something that was/is unheard of in Arab TV. Arabs are also suspicious of who founded and funds this network, and various Zionist/CIA conspiracy theories abound. Finally Al-Jazeera is extremely annoying to the Arab goverments in the region: here is network that operates outside of their control, and which does not hesitate to criticize them. The one Arab goverment Al-Jazeera is not critical of? Surprise, surprise: their benefactors in Qatar.

Al-Jazeera, like most networks, understands what their audience are interested in, and covers those issues relentlessly. Their audience is Arab, they are an Arab network, so the issues tend to be the hot-button issues of the region: especially the Israeli/Palestinian dispute. Al-Jazeera does have a tendency of repeating footage and stories that have the potential to enflame sentiments and emotions, but in that regard, Western networks also suffer from the need to chase and keep high ratings. But it is naive to think they do NOT have some bias against the West:

"Al-Jazeera does not present the news from a completely objective point of view - that would be impossible - but during the war in Iraq its tone was notably sympathetic to the Iraqis and hostile towards the Americans. Similarly, in Afghanistan, the Taliban were often presented as the noble underdog and America as the vengeful colonial aggressor. There are other trends in the network's coverage: a general cynicism about the Arab regimes allied to America is detectable. Although Al-Jazeera has employees from various religions, including Jews, it is clearly sympathetic towards Palestinians and their geopolitical goals. It is obvious the channel did not agree with the way the coalition set about deposing Saddam Hussein. Since the war ended Al-Jazeera has been critical of the coalition's mishandling of the occupation in Iraq. But Al-Jazeera has never supported violence against Americans."

Al-Jazeera provides a perspective that does not exist elsewhere: an Arab bias and coverage of war with all the ugliness that comes with it. Personally, I really like NPR and find that it provides balanced coverage MOST of the time. What NPR lacks are the logistical and technical capabilities to cover wars without relying on the blessings of the US administration. Embedded journalism and official press briefings provides too narrow a perspective.

This book is a great read and is an entertaining way to learn more about the Middle East.