June 22, 2008
U.S.-Funded Arab TV's Credibility Crisis
60 Minutes/ProPublica Joint Investigation Finds Anti-Israel Rhetoric On U.S.-Funded Al Hurra TV
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U.S. Funds News In The Mideast
60 Minutes and ProPublica investigate Al Hurra, a television channel in the Middle East that is funded by U.S. taxpayers, which has come under scrutiny for a raft of problems. Scott Pelley reports.
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Radio Sawa Report
Hamid Alkifaey was a managing director for Al Hurra. He says that after he left, Radio Sawa broadcast a story in which an unidentified speaker called for the deaths of more U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
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Al Hurra's Baghdad Bureau
Danny Nassif is Al Hurra's current news director, his first job in television news. We interviewed him shortly after Al Hurra's Baghdad bureau chief resigned.
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Al Hurra, headquartered in Springfield, Va., is funded by U.S. taxpayers. (CBS)
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As correspondent Scott Pelley reports, Al Hurra's symbol is a herd of unbridled horses, and for American taxpayers it's been a wild ride.
60 Minutes has been looking into Al Hurra in a project with ProPublica, a new, non-profit news organization dedicated to investigative journalism. With so much at stake at Al Hurra, we were surprised to find what it's putting on the air. Some of it has supported terrorism and denied the Holocaust; insiders say Al Hurra has been undermined by loose financial and editorial controls, while its executives try to manage 24-hour news in a language most of them don't understand.
In 2004, as the president prepared to make his State of the Union Address, any Arabs who were watching were probably tuned in to popular Arabic news channels like Al Jazeera, which tend to devote airtime time to America's enemies. But on this night President Bush announced that the U.S. government was getting into the Arab news business.
Maybe it was an odd idea that news of the Middle East would be edited and broadcast from Springfield, Va. Al Hurra, the U.S. government news channel broadcast throughout the Middle East in Arabic, is headquartered there.
"We need an alternative voice in the Middle East. Whether Al Jazeera existed or not," says Jim Glassman, who until last week was the chairman of the government's Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees Voice Of America, Radio Free Europe, and now Al Hurra television.
"Our idea with Al Hurra was to create a network to provide high quality, professional journalism with American standards. I think we've done that," Glassman says.
But people in the Middle East, including U.S. diplomats who speak Arabic, have been complaining about Al Hurra's "quality" and "professionalism."
The channel got off to a bad start in 2004. After Israel assassinated the founder of the militant group Hamas, Al Hurra stuck with a cooking show.
"They were doing a program on how to make salmon sandwiches for weddings. Well, how can you be credible if you don't cover one of the biggest stories of the day, in the Middle East?" asks Larry Register, a former CNN executive with 20 years of experience, who was brought in a-year-and-half ago to rescue the channel.
But Register says he found his staff of Arabs, imported from the region, divided along religious, ethnic and political lines. Asked what state the channel was in when he first walked in the Al Hurra newsroom, Register tells Pelley, "Dysfunctional, extremely dysfunctional."
"Words like militias were thrown around," he explains. "There was this militia that was in charge of this, and this militia in charge of that."
"It felt like you were living in the Middle East. It felt like somebody had picked up the Middle East and brought it to Springfield, Virginia, of all places," Register remembers.
When Register wanted to put on breaking news his first week, he says he found his staff was out to lunch, literally. "There was nobody there. The whole newsroom was empty," he remembers. "Everybody'd gone to lunch. So I'm asking, 'Well, what is this?' 'Well, they take three hour lunches in between programs.'"
Al Hurra's staff was mostly Lebanese Christian, which undermined its credibility in the broader, Islamic, Middle East.
Even worse, Register says he found Al Hurra was paying its vendors far more for services than well-run networks. "It infuriated me as a U.S. citizen to walk in there and seein' the money just flowin' out the door. A true waste of taxpayer money," he says.
Register cleaned house, firing people, renegotiating contracts, and trying to fulfill every news director's mandate. "Needed to get more viewers. Wanted higher viewer-ship across the pan-Arab world. We wanted to get a bigger audience," he explains.
How do you do that?
"I think you do that by becoming more credible. Covering more news aggressively," Register says.
Asked what being "more credible" means, Register tells Pelley, "Not just picking and choosing what you might want to cover because it's favorable for your side versus their side. Cover all of it. Tell the whole story. Part of the idea is Al Hurra is the free one. The name is 'The Free One.'"
Produced by Graham Messick, Michael Karzis, Dafna Linzer and Michael Radutzky
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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See all 312 CommentsRe: "American taxpayers are paying for a Middle Eastern television network that broadcast an anti-Israeli diatribe as recently as last month..."
Why on earth are we spending money that we don''t have to propagandize the Middle East.
Nobody''s buying your nonsense anymore George!
Nobody but the most pathetic remaining handful of your most deluded dead-enders!
Israel is a collapsing welfare/terror-State, and this has become obvious to all.
Propaganda used to inflame tensions rather than mediation and information sharing for better understanding and dialog.
Bu$h has been acting like a terrorist for years, and the press has not cared. He has been pro-Israel, but terrorist-bent all the same...
Truth is rare nowdays...
I am ashamed of American 1969 Kerry anti war mongers the BIG MEDIA! Isn''t CNN an arm of Al Jezera? Aren''t 80% of all American media Pro Muslim? Yes! Never trust big media because it''s not in Americans best interests!
.........................................
Yes and the KKK comments are never far behind..
Israeli (Neo-Nazi Ring) caught after attacks on synagoguesConal Urquhart in Jerusalem The Guardian, Monday September 10 2007 Article historyPolice in Israel have uncovered a (Neo-Nazi ring) !!!
The group of eight Russian immigrants aged between 18 and 21 appeared in court following an 18-month investigation into attacks on two synagogues in which swastikas were painted on the walls of the buildings. The men covered their heads with their shirts during the hearing, revealing arms tattooed with Nazi imagery.
More than a million people from the former Soviet Union have emigrated to Israel, which has a population of (7 million), since 1990, taking advantage of Israels Law of Return which allows anyone to claim citizenship if they have a Jewish grandparent. Many of the new immigrants have little connection to Judaism and emigrated for economic reasons.
Police named the leader of the (Neo-Nazi Gang) as Eli Boanitov, 19, from Petah Tikvah, a city next to Tel Aviv.
NOTE: Boanitov, who was known as "Eli the Nazi", told police: "I won`t ever give up. I was a (Nazi) and I will stay a (Nazi), until we kill them all I will not rest."
In one conversation recorded by the police, Boanitov tells one of his fellow gang members: "My grandfather was a half-Jewboy. I WILL NOT HAVE CHILDREN so that this TRASH will not BE BORN with even a tiny per cent of Jew Boy Blood."
& hacker123, "liberal media" what a joke when it''s completely controlled by corporate interests. why don''t you goose-step on back on over to the faux news propaganda site if mindless brainwashing is more your flavor.....?
Finally a station willing to tell the truth.
Israel is a terrorist nation. They''ve been nothing but terrorists for years. It just so happens their terrorism is supported by the 3rd most powerful country in the world. The USA.
Thank god Russia and China will set the new world order and put the USA and Israel in its place.
No these comments are not anti-semetic. Its the honest to god truth. Israel has to smarten up. Hopefully it won''t take a barrage from Iran for them to do so.
Olmert has a 5% approval rating. He could only dream of having the 20% approval rating that Dubya has.
Israelis know their govt are criminals. They want change to. I wonder if theres an Israeli Obama over there? Please someone intelligent fix these problems for a change and string up the warmongers for good measure.
Who is Really Being Nuclear Threatened ?
Let Israel Nuclear Bomb a Nation and become the Next Nation to be Mass Murderers...
But America should NOT GET INVOLVED in this Genocidal Attack and be a Part of MASS MURDER !!
China, Russia, India & Pakistan are Going to send a message regarding such an Attack or Invasion.
Israel and All other Nations in that Region, have a Right to LIVE as well.
We are getting One Arab Attack-Invasion Away from (World War 3)
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites looks "Unavoidable" given the apparent failure of sanctions to deny Tehran technology with bomb-making potential, one of Prime Minister Ehud Olmerts deputies said on Friday.
"If Iran continues with its program for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it. The sanctions are ineffective," Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz told the mass-circulation Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.
"Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear plans, will be unavoidable," said the former army chief who has also been defense minister.
Iran has defied Western pressure to abandon its uranium enrichment projects, which it says are for peaceful electricity generation rather than bomb-building. The leadership in Tehran has also threatened to retaliate against Israel -- believed to have the Middle Easts only atomic arsenal -- and U.S. targets in the Gulf for any attack on Iran.
Mofaz also said in the interview that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, "would disappear before Israel does."
A spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert did not address Mofazs comments directly but said that "all options must remain on the table" and said more could be done to put financial pressure on Tehran.
The Associated PressPublished: August 17, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/17/europe/EU-GEN-Russia-China-Maneuvers.php
CHEBARKUL TESTING RANGE, Russia: President Vladimir Putin said Friday he had ordered strategic bombers to resume regular long-range patrols as Russian and Chinese forces held their first joint military exercise on Russian soil %u2014 a show of armed muscle aimed at sending a pointed message to the United States.
The resumption of bombing patrols, which analysts say signaled a significant change for Russian military policy, comes amid a growing chill in U.S.-Russian relations, strained over Washingtons criticism of Russias democracy record, Moscow`s objections to U.S. missile defense plans and differences over global crises.
Both Moscow and Beijing share a heightening distrust of what they see as the United States oversized role and influence in global politics, and the two former Cold War rivals have forged a "strategic partnership" aimed at counterbalancing Washingtons policies.
Note: The Russian-Chinese war games, which took place near the Urals Mountain city of Chelyabinsk, coincided with Russian air force maneuvers involving 20 strategic bombers which ranged far over the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans.
"We havent seen that kind of activity in a very long time," Asak told The Associated Press. "Not since the early 1990s. It was quite impressive to see."
Calling on Joe Lie-Berman
On March 16, 2003, on the eve of the United States invasion of Iraq, Pastor John Hagee took to the pulpit to warn of the coming Antichrist.
In his Sermon, "The Final Dictator," Hagee described the Antichrist as a seductive figure with "fierce features." He will be "a Blasphemer and a Homosexual," the Pastor announced.
Then, Hagee Boomed, "Theres a phrase in Scripture used solely to Identify the Jewish people.
NOTE: It suggests that this Man [The Antichrist] is at least going to be Partially Jewish, as was Adolph Hitler, as was Karl Marx."
This "Fierce" Gay Jew, according to Hagee, would "Slaughter One-Third of the Earths population" and "Make Adolph Hitler look like a Choir Boy."
Hear Pastor Hagees latest Judeophobic, anti-gay rant in this video, created by Bruce Wilson of Talk2Action.org
Exposed here for the first time, Hagees comments identifying the Antichrist as a Partly Jewish Homosexual arrive in the wake of a furor the pastor provoked by describing the Holocaust as an act of God.
Hagees Chilling sermon about the Holocaust prompted Sen. John McCain to reject the preachers support, an unexpected turnabout after McCain spent over a year soliciting his endorsement.
THE ISRAELI OWNED AMERICAN MEDIA SLAMS ARABS ALL THE TIME...
*** FOR TAT!
http://www.antiwar.com/reese/?articleid=12955
June 7, 2008
Middle East Pop Quiz
(Muslim Television)
LOL!
LET THEM ALL GET ALONG OR GET IT ON!
THEY CAN NOT HURT US OR HELP US!
ENOUGH!
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Posted by zoe2006 at 04:51 PM : Jun 20, 2008
+ report abuse
The only time we hear about death and destruction in that cancerous sore, is when a desperate, seething, exsaperated and vengeful Palestinian sends shrapnel through a handful of Jews; it''ll make front page news on any American jews media outlet. But the only way for us to see and hear about the Israeli missiles fired into Palestinian homes, cars, and other buildings killing scores and wounding just as many, is when we go on to the internet, or from satellite tv. If America was getting the same images as the other countries in the Middle East and the world, then the jew would have long been kicked out of mainstream influence in our country, but that time will soon come. Can you hear the oh woe is me, I''m just a defenseless innocent jew already. What that cancerous sore did to Lebanon a couple of years ago is what they have been doing on a daily basis in Gaza and West Bank to this day.
GREAT...LETS GET BOTH SIDES OF THE STORY!
OR BETTER YET NOT LISTEN TO ANY OF THEM!
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Posted by sillywilly4 at 04:53 PM : Jun 20, 2008
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Well, big prices can be paid by anyone, jews included.
This is easy research folks. Check out the links provided below and know the truth!
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Posted by NoPacifism at 05:06 PM : Jun 20, 2008
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Yeah, and you''re a schlock, and your job is to get ignored.
...gotta make a stink about "Al Hurra" in public to ensure reelection this November.
Posted by sillywilly4
One can support a free press, oppose censorship and media activism, all without being anti-jew. I don''t like Israel being attacked or the press being turned into political activism. I wish we could have a free press, no censorship, no media activism, and a world free of anti-semitism.
So, let me get this straight. A Palestinian makes a claim that an objective person might find controversial or argueable, but not inherently anti-Semetic and certainly not as racist as the average Michael Savage broadcast. He makes this statement once. And this is somehow horrible, unacceptable? What happened to the First Amendment?
PULL THE PLUG
Posted by NoPacifism
You know, I replaced every anti-Arab,anti-Islam slur in your rant with anti-Israel anti-Jewish references and it reads EXACTLY like a Nazi diatribe.
Where do you propose we build the camps Adolf?
Oh dear; our government is funding a "news" channel and we''re -- gasp -- not even getting compliant coverage in line with the interests of those paying the bills!
This is a real scandal!
The assumption underlying this manufactured "scandal" is, of course, that when an entity (in this case, the U.S. government) owns or pays the bills for a "news" channel, they expect (demand) coverage which comports with their financial or strategic interests, otherwise there will be "consequences".
But this assumption (funding = control) presents several problems.
1) By acknowledging that control over funding SHOULD dictate the content of "news" media, and thus any deviation is a "scandal", CBS acknowledges the unspeakable truth about THEIR OWN FUNDING and the similar demands and constraints upon their "reporting". CBS is owned by a corporation, and their funding comes from advertising from other corporations. Just as it''s viewed as a "scandal" that the US government isn''t getting uniformly compliant coverage from a government funded channel, corporate owned and funded media is under the same pressure to provide compliant coverage in favor of corporate and advertiser interests.
(continued below...)
PULL THE PLUG
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Posted by dzapple at 05:16 PM : Jun 20, 2008
+ report abuse
Indeed, I''m 100% for it, and then we''ll see how quick they they''ll be to run off hither and yonder, dropping bombs and firing missiles.
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