WHO'S TELLING
THE TRUTH?
Over the first 20 days of the war in Iraq, we were able to witness to a great deal of fighting on the news. Interestingly, not all of it has involved tanks, guns and soldiers. The other major battle that has been waged over those weeks was the battle of the broadcasters - media outlets choosing an angle from which to present the war, and the offence taken by others for these decisions.
The most common names thrown around in this debate were the US-based media
outlets, such as CNN, and the Arabic-owned Al-Jazeera television network.
Al Jazeera is an independently run network that broadcasts the news from
the Arab perspective.
Western media expressed disappointment in Al-Jazeera for showing more
gruesome images of the war. While the west focused energy on military
displays, Al-Jazeera has showed the damage inflicted on humans - injured
and maimed civilian men, women, and children. In response to complaints
from the west, the Arab network stated that there are many versions of
the war, and they simply provide a different perspective.
On the other hand, Al-Jazeera has also shown footage of American POWs, received a lot of film footage from the state-run Iraqi TV network, and aired exclusive videos from, among others, Osama Bin Laden. All of this also helps develop the western media's negative opinion of Al-Jazeera.
Of course, western outlets are not immune to pushing one point of view over another. The examples are numerous, but here is one well-documented example:
Here are the questions asked during the interviews hosted by CNN News Anchor Paula Zahn. Remember, this followed a video report on the history of propaganda during war. Look carefully at the nature of the questions and judge for yourself if the questions asked in this interview were designed to provide balance to the issue of different perspectives in reporting.
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Former White House adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. |
Paula Zahn CNN News Anchor |
Hafez Al-MiraziWashington Bureau Chief, Al-Jazeera Television |
ZAHN #1
- Hafez, I'm going to start with you this evening. You could see in Jeff
Greenfield's piece he used the example of some of what the Iraqi information
minister said, and showed how it was completely contradicted by the live
pictures that were being fed to CNN. What kind of context do you provide
for your viewers when you know something is absolutely not true as shown
by live pictures that are being fed to you?
ZAHN #2 - David Gergen, weigh in on that because I don't know how many examples you can come up with where maybe a military official got out in front of the information and then an imbedded reporter either might have amplified it or discredited it altogether.
ZAHN #3 - David, let's talk about the use of language, specifically -I'll give Hafez a chance to weigh in on this in particular -when Al-Jazeera freely uses the term 'martyr' for Iraqi casualties and 'invaders' pretty much as a blanket statement for US and UK forces, do you have a problem with that?
ZAHN #4
- Hafez, will you react to a little bit of what David just said, about
the use of loaded language in some of your broadcasts referring to Iraqi
casualties as 'martyrs' and US and British forces as 'invaders'?
(Mr. Al-Mirazi begins response)
(Zahn interrupts) You do understand why people may find that biased…
(Mr. Al-Mirazi then pointed out that Al-Jazeera has never referred
to Iraqi casualties as 'martyrs'.)
Your challenge is to write a full page, single spaced response to the following questions:
Is anybody telling "the truth"?
When it comes to information distribution services, whom can we trust?
What can we do to ensure we are getting a clear, accurate and balanced message?
Hafez Al-Mirazi is the Washington Bureau Chief for Al-Jazeera Television.
Previously, he was correspondent for BBC Arabic/World Service in Washington
and talk show host for the Arab News Network and Arab network of America
in Washington. He also held positions as writer, editor, and broadcaster
for Voice of America in Washington. Mr. Al-Mirazi started his career as
a radio journalist and broadcaster with Voice of the Arabs (Sawot Al-Arab)
on Cairo Radio in Egypt in 1980. He holds Masters in World Politics from
the Catholic University of America in Washington and a Bachelor in Political
Science from Cairo University. Mr. Al-Mirazi has lived in Washington and
covered US politics since 1983.