US media at 'all-time low'

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Wed, 8 Feb 2006 21:26:05 -0800 (PST)

US media at 'all-time low'

 

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1700691,00.html

 

The Guardian

 

US media at 'all-time low'

 

Julia Day in Qatar

Thursday February 2, 2006

 

 

Arabic-language media have an unprecedented chance to

take over as the world's premier news source because

trust in their US counterparts plummeted following

their " shameful coverage " of the war in Iraq, a

conference heard today.

The US media reached an " all-time low " in failing to

reflect public opinion and Americans' desire for

trusted information, instead acting as a " cheerleader "

for war, said Amy Goodman, the executive producer and

host of US TV and radio news show Democracy Now!, at a

news forum organised by al-Jazeera.

 

 

Article continues

 

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Newsweek's Paris bureau chief, Christopher Dickey,

said the US media were dying because of cutbacks and

weren't interested in covering the world outside

America.

But other delegates questioned whether Arabic media

were up to the challenge.

 

" The US media have done a shameful job of reporting on

the Arab world. With the rise of al-Jazeera and

independent media there is a chance for the Arab media

to react back, but instead what we get is a clash, "

said Ethan Zuckerman, the co-founder of Global Voices

Online and research fellow at the Berkman Centre for

Internet and Society at Harvard Law School.

 

" I would urge everyone involved with new Arabic media

not just to report on this [Arabic] world more fairly

and accurately, but to report on the whole world more

fairly and accurately. I challenge al-Jazeera and the

new Arabic media players to do a better job that the

US in covering the rest of the world, " he said.

 

Ms Goodman said in the run-up to the Iraq war a study

of NBC, CBS, ABC and PBS newscasts over a fortnight

recorded 393 interviews on the conflict, of which only

three reported the anti-war movement.

 

" This is a media cheerleading for war and does not

represent mainstream opinion in the US, " she added.

 

Ms Goodman said she believed the policy of embedding

reporters with coalition forces was " a total failure

for independent journalism ... western audiences need

to see the other side of the story - from communities

and hospitals " .

 

" If people in the US had a true picture of war - dead

babies, women with their legs blown off, dead and

dying soldiers - they would say 'no', " she said.

 

" There is nothing more important than the media - it

is more powerful than any bomb or missile and we have

to take it back ... we need a media that is

independent and honestly showing us the images, the

hell, ugliness and brutality of war, not selling us

war. "

 

Mr Dickey, the Middle East regional editor and Paris

bureau chief at Newsweek magazine, said US media were

" dying " .

 

" After 25 years as a foreign correspondent I know what

the US wants from the rest of the world: to forget

about it. "

 

" There's this idea that the US media is controlling

the agenda. In fact the US media is dying. Resources,

money and staff are being cut back. Twenty years ago

Newsweek had 25 staff in Paris, today it has one: me, "

said Mr Dickey.

 

He added that the gap between what the US and Arabic

media reports was widening. with American reports

being " all about victory and the Arabic being all

about victims " .

 

Faisal al-Kasim, host of al-Jazeera's The Opposite

Direction show, said that as a result of a perceived

failure of western media to reflect the full picture

more people were turning to Arabic media.

 

" Even Arabs who live in the west are giving up

watching western networks and tuning to Arabic

networks instead, " Mr al-Kasim said.

 

However, concerns were aired at today's conference

about the ability of the Arabic media to operate

independently.

 

Lawrence Pintak, a director of the Adham Centre for

Electronic Journalism and a former CBS foreign

correspondent, urged delegates against thinking that

Arabic media were allowed the freedoms to which

western journalists were accustomed.

 

" I am concerned that someone from the US or Europe who

doesn't know the Arabic world will think that all is

goodness and light when we know that is not the case, "

he said, citing the beating of journalists during the

Egyptian elections and the detention of journalists in

Yemen and Morocco.

 

However, Mr Pintak there was a " great sense of

possibility " about journalism in the Arabic world,

likening it to the interest in the profession in the

US following Watergate.

 

Concerns were also aired about the ability of

al-Jazeera's soon-to-launch English language station,

al-Jazeera International, to reproduce the success of

its main Arabic network across the world.

 

" We might as well buy a new channel in the US, " Mahmud

Shammam, the bureau chief for the Dar Al Watan

newspaper and Newsweek Arabic.

 

" [Al-Jazeera International] will not have Arabic

characteristics and that's a big challenge. "

 

Hugh Miles, a journalist and United Nations media

consultant, said al-Jazeera was massively popular in

north Africa but because conspiracy theories about its

agenda were rife, the new English-language channel

would be watched very carefully.

 

" If al-Jazeera International is perceived to be biased

or insensitive to Islam - on the Danish cartoon issues

for example - there will be a loss of faith in the

al-Jazeera brand, " he said.

 

" The Arabic service has done a tremendous job in

establishing al-Jazeera as a trusted name. It would be

a terrible shame to see that image jeopardised. "

 

But the director of al-Jazeera's research centre,

Mostefa Souag, attempted to allay fears about the new

channel, saying the network's managing director, Wadah

Khanfar, has confirmed its editorial stance " will not

be far away " from its sister station.

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1700691,00.html