U.S.-Funded Arab TV's Credibility Crisis

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

(CBS)  But we still found surprises on Al Hurra that slipped past the independent monitoring system. Last month, a guest on the show "Free Hour" was given free reign to rail against Israel.

"We were watching, a couple of weeks ago, the broadcast Free Hour. And one of the guests said that Israel's policies toward the Palestinians amounts to, in his words, a Holocaust conducted by a racist state. Were you aware of that?" Pelley asks.

"No. But, you know, I think it's a little unfair to pick a sentence out of an hour program - if the full context - balanced that, it's a different situation," Conniff says.

We checked and the speaker was neither challenged by the host, nor balanced by another guest.

"It's not necessarily just pulling a sentence out of a program. There's a pattern here, critics of this channel say. You have Nasrallah given an hour of air time. You have the Holocaust deniers conference covered. Now, you have this person saying that Israel is a
racist state. Is this the kind of thing the American taxpayer should be paying for?" Pelley asks.

"No. There's absolutely not a pattern," Conniff argues. "Now you're picking something that occurred, I don't know, two years ago, and…."

"Two weeks ago," Pelley points out.

"Two weeks ago. But that was, you know, a year and a half later. And you know, I not even gonna comment on that. I'll be happy to look into it, and see what the full context is," Conniff replies.

This week, Conniff told 60 Minutes that "any implication that Al Hurra is anti-Israeli is absolutely wrong."

So far U.S. taxpayers have spent nearly half a billion dollars on Al Hurra. After four years, we wanted to know if anyone is watching.

"I think by and large it's irrelevant," says Dr. Shibley Telhami, a top researcher of Arab public opinion.

He's a professor at the University of Maryland, and over the last six years he has conducted polls across the Middle East asking Arabs what they watch. He told Pelley that the channel the Bush administration loves to hate, Qatar-based Al Jazeera, is the runaway number one, with 53 percent of the audience.

Dr. Telhami says Al Hurra ranks toward the very bottom of that list. "I think in there, it takes about two percent," he explains.

"So, after half a billion dollars spent on Al Hurra, the effect in the region has been what?" Pelley asks.

"In terms of public opinion, less than zero," Telhami says.

Telhami says many in the Arab world say they dislike the United States because of its policies. It is not, he says, a misunderstanding or a distorted image portrayed by other channels. "It's what we do in Iraq. It's what we do on the Arab-Israeli issue. It's how we define our war on terrorism. Most people interpret it as a war on Islam," he says. "Every single year, anger with America has increased. Think about how could you get to that point if you're succeeding?"

It's important to note Telhami's polling does not include Iraq, which Al Hurra considers its biggest audience.

[reply60min]

nice followup on leher w/telhami. pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/jan-june08/alhurra_06-23.html

re: holocaust "denier" conference, the position taken is that the deaths are woefully over advertised in comparison to 20M native americans killed, 10-20 chinese killed by japan, etc. Bush''s dig against ahmadenijad is pure hypocrisy. it was the respected john hopkins/lancet journal using the best scientific methods estimated 665k iraqi deaths (later report 1M). bush was asked about their report to which he replied "I think..30k give or take". This is like ahmadinijad taking the same liberties of downward revision of 6M jews to 270k deaths.

[kerbie2]

Everyone in this world has a selective memory cause if you told the whole truth about something you may lose something and no one wants to lose. I for one think that there is a place in this country for a news channel such as Al Hurra and funded by the US, but what is put on air should be the TRUTH and nothing but the TRUTH. If this were done the right way there would be a fluently Aribic speaking and undersanding staff that could monitor what was being aired. If there is an hour devoted to a thought to be terrorist then there should be a rebutal devoted to his or her statements. I for one am not a god fearing person, but it seems to me that there is some validity to what is written in religious texts and to what is going on in the world today. What is aired on this station should be aired without US goverment involvment whatsoever and should not be edited in anyway shape or form, tell it like it is and let the people that it is supposed to be reaching form there own oppinion as to what is the truth and what they wanna beleive. Who in the world are we to tell anybody what is right and what is wrong, seeing that we can not get it right in this country either. We are at war at home just as we are at war in the Middle East. Now there is something to be said for human rights and what is going on all over this world is wrong.

[a2rkowski]

60 minutes, your journalistic standards have really slipped. Watching this segment yesterday, I waited and waited for you to explain exactly what was false or inaccurate in the statement you aired by the reporter who covered the holocaust deniers'' conference (the one you finally got fired). I expected it to be something big, something really damning, on the order of the reporting that got Dan Rather fired. But I waited and waited in vain.

Please correct this omission before scheduling this segment for reruns, and next time try your best to return to the reporting standards of Al Jazeera and the BBC that you attained in the past (pre-Laura Logan and Blackwater).

A. Tworkowski
Glendale, CA 91204

[tvmonitor]

Larry Register has a selective memory. Insiders say that as VP of News Operations at Alhurra, he signed off on the continuation of these agreements. He was informed of the nature, scope of work, and costs and did nothing seek competition for same or similar services. Not surprising, since most of the agreements were fixed priced under the FAR rules and the vendors assumed the the risk of economy and efficiency to produce and deliver on a moment''s notice; and did so.

[snagletooth8]

The US has wasted many millions on an ill-conceived and poorly executed war on terrorism. Those who believe that the US is creating a war against Islam should denounce the fanatic rantings of the extremist leadership and take control of the majority of moderate Muslims. As long as Muslims are controlled and led by extremists, the animosity between the Muslim world and the Western world will continue.

[crescentgirl]

I don''t really think Al Hurra is going to get anywhere in the minds of Arabs or Muslims for that matter until they truly are free to discuss American and Israeli policy critically...until that happens...it''s just another mouthpiece for American propaganda. Why do u think Al-jazeera and other arab channels are so popular among the middle east population and the larger Muslim population? Because they discuss and provide a view point that no American news station even wants to fathom...maybe U.S./Israeli policy is hypocritcal/unfair etc. Maybe we are supporting human suffering and a tyrannical gov''t..maybe our friends are the opressors (not our enemies as we are led to believe)...huh..interesting eh? That''s why my friends. Living in the U.S....I would much rather watch Al-jazeera, BBC, NPR...anything else than the slanted American news garbage that passes for news every day in the U.S.

[lochlan-2009]

"So it began spending about $100 million a year on a U.S. government news channel in Arabic."

It''s called a propaganda machine, and is quite evidently the same here in the U.S.

[crescentgirl]

This is just more American propaganda...why would anyone in the middle east or here in the u.s. want to watch garbage? I say stick with Al-jazeera and get the real story on American policies in the ME.

[bluestardad]

QUIT FUNDING ANYONE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

[ustaxpayer12]

I do not want any of my tax dollars funding the Al Hurra broadcast.
The $500 million should have been used for people in this country, ie social security, and the homeless, etc,etc, too many to list here!
What an embarrassing shame this is and i understand why USA citizens are ashamed of our government.

[superdem]

JoeCoolSwat - does God want you calling people horrible names and threatening them ? Does God need the likes of you, with the ethics of a thug, defending Him ? Your posts violate every lesson Jesus ever taught. You''re a very poor advocate for religion AND for democracy. Judge not, lest YE be judged. Liberty and justice for ALL.

[superdem]

America HAS no credibility in the Middle East, so this propaganda machine was doomed from the start. We blatantly favor the Israelis, so everything is seen from that lense, and we label anyone who is not a Zionist a terrorist. It''s as if we were defending the South African government during apartheid, which we did for a long time. Having someone named Glassman calling major arab politicians terrorists and keeping them off the air says it all. It''s like having Republicans directing Air America. No one could possibly take it seriously. Americans already know they can''t believe their own press, why would arabs believe the American version of Middle East news ?

[inventagod2]

Religion = cult behavior

If you do not question, you are brainwashed.

[ddaryl1]

Religion is now the root of all evil.

[ddaryl1]

hungry1968.....just keep up your hate for christians, and Jewish people and you''''''''re attempt to destroy God and remove God from this country....just keep it up, that''''''''s what you do best....keep up the bad work

Posted by JoeCoolSwat at 10:12 AM : Jun 23, 2008

[joecoolswat]

zoe2006......No laws establishing OR the free excersize therof

NO LAWS AGAINST THE FREE EXCERSIZE THEREOF.....you know what that means? It means you don''t have a right to be free from religion

[joecoolswat]

hkjonus.....Do you have something to say to me?

Let get together and estimate how fast I wipe the floor with your Emo hair

[hkjonus]

Everyone let''s estimate JoeCoolSwat''s IQ. Highest bidder has to keep responding to his stupid arguments until Jesus Christ comes back to Earth. BTW, it ain''t gonna happen so that means forever.

My Estimate: Zero

[joecoolswat]

hungry1968....why are you naming radical evangelical christian celebrities as you''re evidence of every day American religion....forget it, sorry I brought it up.....obviously you were traumatized when you were younger....I feel sorry for you

[joecoolswat]

hungry1968....you pick a select few of the worst cults in history, as examples of American Christians? If this is your impression of what everyday religion in America is about, you are sicker than I thought.