Sunday: CBS's 60 Minutes will skewer Alhurra.

"American taxpayers are paying for a Middle Eastern television network that broadcast an anti-Israeli diatribe as recently as last month, a joint investigation by 60 Minutes and ProPublica reveals. This, despite the fact that Al Hurra management promised Congress nearly two years ago that they would take measures to prevent such mistakes, which had occurred repeatedly before. The joint investigation will be broadcast on 60 Minutes this Sunday, June 22, at 7 p.m. ET/PT [2300 UTC]. ... Former [Alhurra] news director Larry Register says governments and journalism don’t mix. 'You can’t make independent decisions if you have a government over you telling you what you can and can’t do. It’s a no-win situation, as I painfully found out.'" CBS New, 19 June 2008.
     The likely backlash to revelations in this 60 Minutes piece could spell the end of hopes for independent, credible, and successful U.S. international broadcasting.
     Expect calls for legislation calling for U.S. international broadcasting to support and adhere to the policies of the United States. In other words, propaganda rather than news and current affairs.
     In such a scenario, U.S. international broadcasting could thrive as a bureaucracy. It would transmit to the world messages that would make Congress and the Administration smile. Congress and the Administration would in turn award U.S. international broadcasting with generous budgets.
     The problem is that people do not tune to foreign broadcasts for propaganda. They tune to get the comprehensive, objective, balanced news that they do not get from the state-controlled domestic media. And so U.S. international broadcasting will have no audience. It will be a waste of taxpayers' money.
     But maybe this won't be a problem, as Congress supports several agencies, program, and projects that are a waste of the taxpayers' money.
     In any case, BBC Arabic television is probably now displacing Alhurra as the honest-broker news channel for the Arab world. There is evidence that Alhurra was beginning to fulfill that role, because it was neither Sunni nor Shiite, nor associated with any single Arab country or faction.
     Providing news about the Arab world to the Arab world is a heady business. It must include coverage of Arab newsmakers who are virulently anti-Israel, or worse. Because MPs tend to understand the concept of international broadcasting, BBC Arabic Television will be allowed to succeed. Members of Congress are less prone to understand the concept of international broadcasting and probably will not allow Alhurra to succeed.
     This could lead to the demise of Alhurra and the fulfillment of the dream of many VOA employees to restore the VOA Arabic service. But radio, mainstay of the old VOA Arabic Service, will no longer do. Arabs are now watching television, for entertainment and for news. And television must come in the form of a 24/7 channel on Arabsat and Nilesat.
     The VOA 24/7 Arabic channel could counterprogram BBC Arabic by providing a full-service programming, interspersed with newscasts that focus more on the American rather than the Arab experience. Arabs can witness American democracy, and all of its compelling messiness. Arabs will learn about the imperfections of American democracy, and might conclude that such imperfection would be a good thing in their own countries. Posted: 20 Jun 2008 Permalink Print