It’s time to give the Arab media what they deserve—no respect. They are not journalists. They’re not Western media style operations, as they claim, but really agenda-driven troublemakers with “media credentials,” sympathetic to Osama bin Laden and fiercely anti-U.S.
If they admitted that and continued their work, I’d have a lot less of a problem with it. But they claim to be fair and open to all views, just doesn’t seem to be true.
After Tuesdsay’s attacks on weapon storage munitions and other insurgent strongholds in Fallujah, they, as expected, only focused on the possible deaths of civilians and interviewed religious leaders or others angry at the attacks. Some claimed the U.S. was attacking mosques and just about everyone said they couldn’t understand why the U.S. is doing this. They just couldn’t figure it out. If they even cared about seeming fair, they would have said the U.S. government says it’s to root out insurgents. But no, they just feign surprise at the U.S effort. They don’t discuss the possibility that curbing these rebels might actually help stabilize the country and help allow the people there to determine their own destiny.
They live in a world unaccustomed to objective truth. Citizens who have long been deceived by their governments are starving for information that is not controlled by the government. But as I read in the translations today as I have on many other occasions, it is clear these networks are far more insidious than even government-run TV. At least with government-run television, the people knew that they’re getting propaganda.
You can argue that some U.S. networks or newspapers try to put out only the most positive spin on U.S. military operations and that can be a fair critique. But I promise you, it is not comparable to the dangerous propaganda emitted from the airwaves in Qatar.
The U.S. commander in the region has expressed frustration at the false suggestion that U.S. troops are targeting civilians.
Maybe it’s just time to stop accepting anything from them, apart from live video. We should start treating their reports with the same sort of disdain that government-run media received and deserved.