Comments on: U.S.-Funded Arab TV's Credibility Crisis

60 Minutes/ProPublica Joint Investigation Finds Anti-Israel Rhetoric On U.S.-Funded Al Hurra TV

[ash1960]

Shame on you Mr. Pelley . I had a great admiration for you in the past but you blew it big. Since when Israel became one of our states? I believe if they had said racist Germany or France you wouldn''t have objected. How can you call yourself a journalist?

[ajaxtheleast]

Cant do it with swords, cant do it with words.

Even failed as a war criminal. Some war
criminals were able to strut their stuff
through out the country that they''d
invaded.

Which by the way, never think for a second
that in the fevered dreams of the demented
one that appearing in bahgdad before crowds
of smiling happy faces thanking him for their
"freedom" wasn''t in the plans.

It''s a good thing that Bush already *WAS
nuts because the stark comparison between what
he''d planned for invading Iraq and it''s earth-
shaking politically-changing consequences of
of a Middle East domino effect spreading
democracy and the total disaster that he now
finds himself in would make any man with
his extreme ego go nuts.

*Okay it''s debatable as to whether Bush
was demented before or after Iraq.

[omaar-101]

http://www.reuters.com/article/blogBurst/politics?

Reuters: The Moderate Voice...Speaks without Hesitation Nor Reservation.

He`s saying saying, Enough of Baby Sitting, Solely Protecting Israel, He`s also saying, Lets openly Discuss this issue an how it Effects Our Nations Security as well as Our Future and how this will Effect Us.


We have been the %u201CBig Brother%u201D to Israel for my entire adult life.

Israel has been standing strong for more than half a century. Under our superpower umbrella

But will there ever come a time when our National Conscience will allow us to open up a new conversation on this ?

Is there not a point at which the global community can say that Israel has grown up and should now be capable of standing on its own two feet.

Releiving us of the Burden of acting as the `Big Brother on the Playground.

Doubtless many readers will feel a desire to let fly with the usual claims that I%u2019m some sort of Anti-Semite because of this piece. Feel Free - I%u2019ve heard it all before. I bear no animus toward Israel as a nation and certainly harbor no anger towards Jews of any nation.

But this relationship we share with Israel is unique and decidely (One-Sided in Both Benefits and Costs).

And the Price we are Paying for it Continues to RISE while the REWARDS LOOK MORE & MORE INTANGIBLE.

Feel free to line up the Firing Squad, Readers. I%u2019m Ready for it.

[omaar-101]

http://www.reuters.com/article/blogBurst/politics?

We have been the %u201CBig Brother%u201D to Israel for my entire adult life, unquestioning and unwavering. And while this noble cause has doubtless been of tremendous benefit to the Israeli people, constantly under threat of extinction at the hands of outraged Middle Eastern neighbors, what has been our biggest reward? The answer is, the antipathy of the Muslim world towards the United States. This has always been - and remains - the Elephant in the Room of which none wish to speak.


Why is al Qada at war with us ? You can talk all day about how they %u201CHate Us for Our Freedoms%u201D or how they want to Convert Us - and the Entire World - to Islam.

But in the End, It%u2019s Israel.

It%u2019s always been Israel.

It is, for so many of these nations, the perpetual thorn in their collective side%u2026 the wound which will never heal.

Israel has been Standing Strong for more than half a century. Under our superpower umbrella they have developed a military capability which is the envy of nations many times their size. But will there ever come a time when our national conscience will allow us to open up a new conversation on this ?


Is there not a point at which the global community can say that Israel has Grown Up and should now be capable of standing on its own Two Feet, releiving us of the Burden of Acting as the `Big Brother` on the Playground as we continue to Inflame the Muslim world against us?

[laliberal]

Journalist no matter what broadcast they work for should be free to report without being "monitored". So what if they reported what we consider anti-Israeli rhetoric. Should Ghandi have been monitored as well for speaking out against Israel. Shame on you 60 minutes for this bias segment and shame on you Scott Pelley for such making such petty and bias remarks. Perhaps you are the ones who should be stopped from broadcasting such propaganda.

[laliberal]

Journalist no matter what broadcast they work for should be free to report without being "monitored". So what if they reported what we consider anti-Israeli rhetoric. Should Ghandi have been monitored as well for speaking out against Israel. Shame on you 60 minutes for this bias segment and shame on you Scott Pelley for such making such petty and bias remarks. Perhaps you are the ones who should be stopped from broadcasting such propaganda.

[rapt44]

I agree. 60 minutes wants the channel to be PRO ISRAEL. That reporters comments didn''t advocate violence. He said that Israel was racist. OUR FORMER PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER CALLS IT APARTHEID. Wow, 60 minutes, way to undercut your message of making Al Hurra a functioning, unbiased new source in the middle-east. I really hope one day the moderates will shout down to the extremists on either side that want to fight each other. I know I''m doing my part by posting that this 60 minutes report regards getting that reporter fired was PATHETIC! WORST 60 MINUTES REPORT I HAVE SEEN BESIDES THE ROONEY SEGMENTS WHICH ARE GETTING SCARY.

[vapacker1]

"READ THE BOOKS BEFORE YOU VOTE"

Great idea! But you seem to be a tad late. Maybe you should have read what our current prez said about "nation building" and that Africa was a nation and that Social Security was NOT a federal program before voting in 2000!

Even better reading is the account of a prez who had both of his grandpa''s involved in companies that were charged under the 1932 "Trading With The Enemy Act" per their dealings with the Nazi''s Care to guess who?

So if you''re gonna toss stones about half-truths, innuendo, and outright ***...let''s include all the goodies about our politicians.

BTW, ever hear anything about something called "The Keating Five" back in those wonderful Ronnie Reagan 1980''s? Seems it involved one of our two presidential candidates...and it''s NOT the guy you think is some Muslim nut case who is going to sell out the USA. Look it up and get back to us.

[vapacker1]

MommaKat64, I was probably voting before you were born. I can remember what Harry Truman said about the mess we created in Israel. CAN YOU?

Israel is a false nation that was created at the expense of a huge group of human beings. You can love or hate the Arabs and the PALS, but they got screwed big time when we helped found Israel.

Our phony politicians all seem afraid to even mention when Israel is wrong...about anything.

Did you ever hear about a clever little episode called the USS Liberty? Look it up and you might realize the depth of the problem our politicians have created per Israel.

Israel basically invented modern terrorism and now our coddling of this tiny nation that has never done anything for the USA is one of the two reasons for most of the hatred of the USA in the Arab Muslim world. (I wonder if you are even smart enough to realize the other reason)

[Vescera]

Al-Hurra is not. Al-Mukabbala it is. That is why it failed. Al-Jazeera seems more Hurra than Al-Hurra. I never watched Al-Hurra, but do occasionaly watch Al-Jazeera. Frankly, I did not even know that it existed, but CBS''s 60 Minutes explained why.

Yes, Palestine is a major issue for the Arabs, but Al-Hurra could succeed beyond belief if it tackled basic "Hurrya", that freedom, issues in the Arab world. Saddam Hussein was bad, but not any worse than Qaddafi, Mubarak, Zine Al Abidine, King Abdulah, Morrocan King, and the whole line up... Fill the blank. Al-Hurra failed to address Al-Hurrya, simply put.

Nasir

[shelby3757]

Yet another Bush blunder. The money spent on this mess would have been better spent on Plunkynut.

[rdog91x]

Our President put us in this bottomless financial position by explaining America to the Arabs. The Bush administration felt it had to act fast to explain America to the Arab world. So it began spending about $100 million a year on a U.S. government news channel in Arabic. It''s called "Al Hurra," meaning "The Free One."

Lets cut our financial loss with this Arabic channel. The United States of America would appreciate the money more due to our weakened American dollar. The Bush Admin. should consider the %u201CAmerican People%u201D and cut the loss with this one by diverting the money back into our failing economy.
Please be aware of whom you vote into office. Lets avoid this type of financial problem in our future.

[lucyfur7]

Speaking of a credibility crisis - how did CBS manage to run this story without once uttering the word propaganda? To pretend that Al Hurra is anything else is ludicrous.

[zziadeh]

So CBS is critical of ALHURRA because ALHURRA has criticized Israel on occasions. Wow, CBS must be broadcasting from Mars. How do you expect any television station to be credible in the Arab World while being silent about the daily crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinians? CBS wants ALHURRA to close its eyes on the daily confiscation of Palestinian lands by Israel to build settlements for new Jew immigrants from New York and St. Petersburg. Or maybe ALHURRA should overlook the ongoing Holocaust against the one and a half million Palestinians in Gaza by Choking their food supply, fuel and medicine. How about not covering Palestinian women giving birth at Israeli military checkpoints in the occupied Wes Bank? Or maybe ALHURRA should not cover the Israeli settlers%u2019 daily rampage destroying Palestinian Farmland and cutting their olive trees in the West Bank. By the way, covering up for the Israeli crimes is the specialty of the US mainstream media; CBS included. Only in America the Israeli crimes goes on unreported; and this is why America%u2019s Image is suffering in the Arab World. Americans never come to understand the magnitude of the suffering their tax dollars is inflicting on the Palestinians. Billions of these tax dollars are quietly channeled to Israel every year to finance its crimes against the Palestinians. ALHURRA was created to cure this overt bias.
This story was tailor-made for Bob Simon; however Scott Pelley chose to disgrace himself instead.

[smurfcrusher]

They are being reformed into the Patriot Act of news channels.

All hat, no cows.

[smurfcrusher]

Yes, they are "The Free One" as long as they spout official rhetoric and tow the party line.

How dare they try to choose what to report on, and what not to report? Who do they think they are, FOX news??

[abigail70]

I''m paying over $4 a gallon for gas, and these rat-bastiges are paying hundreds of millions of dollars to put terrorists on live TV. They don''t like us and never will! They didn''t like us to begin with! What the hell? Why are you spending tons of our money to try to kiss their a$$es? This makes me so @#$!#@ angry! I''m so sick of all the middle east ***. I just don''t care anymore. Get out men and women out, and let the country fall in a big f''ing hole. I never thought I''d feel that way, but ENOUGH is ENOUGH.

[surh]

[2d half of comment on 60 Minutes'' Al Hurra segment]

The segment ended with the "expose" of the delay in firing the reporter who had reported from Iran''s Holocaust conference that there is no scientific evidence of the Holocaust. While that view is a flagrant misrepresentation of the historical truth, your report did not make clear whether he was voicing his own views or reporting what the Holocaust deniers had said.

I was encouraged at first to think that 60 Minutes had tackled the important problem of U.S. communication with the Muslim world, but found that the bulk of concern was with the more sensational "scandal" that so much money had been spent on broadcasting with the such low "ratings." Even more disappointing was the impression given that CBS News believes that government-sponsored media outlets should not give voice to all opinions from the Muslim world. Does CBS apply this rule to its own broadcasting, one wonders. The credibility of a network is in the balance struck, not in this or that opinion expressed. In the case of tonight''s segment, it was not clear what opinion was being expressed, though the impression that CBS would condone government censorship is disturbing.
Gerald Surh
Carrboro, NC

[surh]

In 60 Minutes''s report on Al Hurra, I was disappointed to find that Scott Pelley and CBS News left such a confused and ambiguous impression, suggesting either that the piper should pipe the tune he''s paid to play or that the press should tell both sides of the story unless it cuts against U.S. values whether or not imposed by a government sponsor.

Although the piece seemed to accept Mr. Register''s definition of "more credible" programming and to deplore the shabby treatment he received for seeking to run honest and balanced news coverage, Pelley went on to condemn the broadcast of the Hezbollah leader''s speech and the "free speech" speaker who called Israel racist and genocidal.
[2d half to follow]

[troylet1]

Shame on 60 Minutes for your disrespect of free speech. And for the truth. Everyone in the Mideast knows that Nasrallah is not a terrorist but a legitimate Lebanese patriot operating within their democratic system. Just because the US labels anyone it doesn''t like as a terorist, doesn''t mean that the rest of the world shares that assessment. You are keeping Americans in the dark and preventing the possibility of peace through understanding by your shameful presentation of this story.