NPR: Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't, Al Hurra

Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't, Al Hurra

If you want to know why the U.S.-backed Al Hurra Arabic satellite TV network will never reach the levels of audience penetration that its competitors, like Al Jazeera or Al Arabiya, have reached, it's illustrated rather neatly in this piece from Thursday's New York Times.

Executives from the cable channel were chastised by both Democrats and Republicans for airing the views of leaders of the militant Islamist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. Washington-based politicians saw this as a no-no. One problem is that none of the top executives who run Al Hurra, which is based in Virginia, actually speak Arabic, so they have to rely on the Arabic-speaking staff to tell them if a program or interview is OK.

Congress has a perfectly understandable position -- it funds the program, it gets to call the tune. But it's also why Al Hurra will struggle to overcome the perception that it is little more than an American propaganda outlet in Iraq. This piece by Courtney Radsch at Arabisto gives a good overview of the difficulty of Al Hurra's position.

Joaquin F. Blaya, a Hurra executive, did point out that it didn't make much sense for a station designed to promote democracy and free speech not to practice it. But this being America, where you can air different viewpoints, one exists, of course -- Joel Mowbray presents it at Power Line.

1:37 PM ET | 05-22-2007 | permalink

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