June 12, 2007
Embattled Al Hurra News Director Resigns
Larry Register quietly stepped down from the top editorial post at U.S.-funded Arabic-language TV network Al Hurra on Friday, amid intense criticism the network had started to embrace anti-American and anti-Israeli viewpoints.
The independently run network began broadcasting in nearly two dozen Middle Eastern countries in early 2004, as part of President Bush's directive to counter the swelling tide of anti-Americanism in that part of the globe. But so far, this arm of the war on terror has achieved little success.
Al Jazeera, the oft-maligned (in Washington) Arabic-language news giant, has only surged in popularity since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The independently run Qatar-based network is watched by more than 35 million viewers worldwide. In 2004, Al Jazeera shocked the advertising world by placing fifth behind Apple, Google, IKEA and Starbucks in online industry publication BrandChannel's annual survey.
Al Hurra was meant to reverse that trend. Instead, it, along with a "hearts and minds" State Department initiative, seem to have produced few positive results.
But the task before Al Hurra was almost impossible to begin with: portray America in a fair light to an audience deeply skeptical of all American media. By airing interviews with Bush and other officials explaining U.S. policy in Iraq and elsewhere, the network appeared to confirm Middle Eastern viewers' skepticism of it. More troublingly, viewers in earlier days reported the network skipped coverage of "hard news" events such as the release of videotapes from al-Qaida leaders.
Register denies steering the network too far the other way in an attempt to win over viewers. Nonetheless, the unchallenged airing of anti-U.S. and anti-Israel rants from leaders of terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah and al-Qaida landed the network in the hot seat last month. Under questioning by members of the House Middle East and South Asia Subcommittee, an official from the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees U.S.-funded foreign media, admitted that none of the Al Hurra leadership was fluent in Arabic.
In other words, much of that anti-American content made the airwaves in part because no Al Hurra supervisors understood what was being broadcast.
There is no transcript of the hearing, but according to an account in the New York Sun, subcommittee chair Gary Ackerman, a New York Democrat, asked BBG's board members, "Why are American taxpayer dollars used to spread the hate, lies, and propaganda of these nuts, when our goal was to counter them?"
Another Democrat, Steve Rothman of New Jersey, called on Register, a non-Arabic speaker, to be fired. Register, formerly CNN's Jerusalem bureau chief, was brought on in November in an effort to boost Al Hurra's viewership.
Joel Mowbray, a journalist who often writes for conservative news blog Power Line, may fairly be credited with Register's resignation. He has been following, with a critical eye, developments at Al Hurra closer than any major news organization. Last week, he reported that the House Foreign Operations Appropriations subcommittee denied the entire $11.1 million in new funding BBG requested on Al Hurra's behalf.
Karen Hughes, a longtime Bush associate and head of the State Department's overseas PR efforts, backed the funding request.
Various links to Mowbray's reporting on Al Hurra in both Power Line and the Wall Street Journal can be found in his breakdown of Register's resignation.
Posted at 6:10 PM
Posted to:
Al Hurra, Israel, Media, Middle East, President Bush
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