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War
TV: Debates all
over the place
by Tarek Atia
The state of Arab public
opinion in the aftermath of
September 11 and US strikes on Afghanistan was the
subject of a televised debate on the BBC this week,
featuring journalists and commentators from the Arab
world and the West.
The show was
prefaced by a BBC special report on Arab
public opinion, which revealed that BBC Monitoring
lists the Arab country with the most sympathy for the
United States as Egypt.
A lot of that has
to do with the fact that Egypt has
suffered from terrorism in the recent past.
Iraq and Iran are the most hostile, we find out.
On the talk show, which took place with two of the
guests there in the studio with the host --both the
London correspondent for Qatari satellite channel
Al-Jazeera, and a Middle East analyst named Hazhir
Toumonian. The other two guests -- veteran Middle East
correspondent Robert Fisk, and a Palestinian media
commentator -- were live via satellite from their
respective locations in Beirut and Jerusalem.
It didn't take
long for the debate to become
interesting. A figure is mentioned -- that Al-Jazeera
boasts 35 million viewers in the Arab world and
abroad. This is the channel that broadcasts Osama bin
Laden's calls for jihad, and provides footage of
Afghanistan for most of the world's media right now.
Toumounian takes offense. He calls al-Jazeera a "nasty
little propaganda channel... nasty, brutal fanning the
flames of hatred for the West. You Arabs will pay the
price one day," he actually says.
The al-Jazeera correspondent sitting right next to him
remains calm.
The host has very
little time, and no clear agenda --
the subject is too wide -- the format is too narrow --
everything has to be turned into sound bites. He
barely allows each guest to comment on some wildly
unrelated angle, then moves on to the next one.
Robert Fisk, the relatively pro-Arab writer from the
Independent, doesn't think the Islamic world is
coming to terms with their Osama bin Ladens the same
way the US has come to terms with their Timothy
McVeighs.
Fisk says he
thinks they key to what bin Laden wants
is an overthrow of the Saudi regime. He says he has
some insight on this matter since he's met bin Laden a
few times over the years.
Is airing bin
Laden's call to kill Americans on TV
irresponsible, the host wants to know. Fisk points out that the tape
was shown as is, no
questions asked, not like with Tony Blair where he had
to face questions.
There is barely
enough time for the show to end on an
ominous note: "Is the propaganda war more important?"
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