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The Public Diplomacy Blog is intended to stimulate dialog among scholars, researchers, practitioners and professionals from around the world in the public diplomacy sphere. The opinions represented here are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School.

A CONSTRUCTIVE LOOK AT AL-HURRA AND ITS CRITICS
JUN 24, 2008 - 4:35PM PDT
Posted by Craig Hayden
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I have to admit I did not expect to be writing what could be deemed a defense of Al-Hurra -- the U.S.-sponsored Arabic language television station beamed across the Arab world. Al-Hurra (which means "the free one" in Arabic) has come under scrutiny over the past few years for its potential impact on U.S. public diplomacy objectives. Yet the recent story by CBS News on the failings of Al-Hurra and coverage by The Washington Post, necessitates a critical response. The following blog entry provides two critiques -- first of the oddly framed arguments in CBS's coverage of Al-Hurra, and second of the government's rejoinder. Basically, while the CBS report brings up important organizational and strategic deficiencies surrounding Al-Hurra and its 'mission' -- its criticism only highlights the fact that Al-Hurra has been conferred conflicting (and perhaps contradictory) objectives and lacks a political constituency in the government. The U.S. government's response amounts to claims that Al-Hurra's numbers are improving and that the government is essentially "doing something" to promote its perspective in the competitive Arab media market. This controversy reveals the enduring problems of contemporary U.S. international broadcasting -- its weakness in the face of domestic political opposition, haphazard implementation of conflicting foreign policy imperatives, and perhaps a strategic misrecognition of the real communication landscape. In the wake of these observations, I suggest that a revitalized Al-Hurra would resolve its mandate issues, and embrace the relevance of participatory media in its target market. CBS criticizes Al-Hurra What is frustrating about the CBS piece (produced in conjunction with the non-profit investigative news organization ProPublica) is that it down-plays serious critiques of how the station is managed (including what gets covered and how stories make it to broadcast) and its viability in the crowded Arab media market, in favor of an oblique argument insinuating that Al-Hurra is an outlet for terrorism. By citing disparate incidents taken out of context, the report suggests that Al-Hurra has become an outlet for terrorists, because it broadcast a speech by Hassan Nasrallah (the leader of Hezbollah), and offered poor coverage of the Iranian conference on the Holocaust (coverage which seemed to be uncritical of the absurd suggestions of Holocaust deniers). CBS recounts a history of controversy surrounding Al-Hurra in interviews of Al-Hurra personnel. CBS rightly interviews Larry Register, who had been hired to bring some credibility to the station -- only to be let go as the channel became increasingly politicized (as Marc Lynch has previously noted). Register tells the CBS interviewer Scott Pelley that "credibility" means: "Not just picking and choosing what you might want to cover because it's favorable for your side versus their side. Cover all of it. Tell the whole story. Part of the idea is Al- Hurra is the free one. The name is 'The Free One.'" And yet, the CBS story continues to focus on how the few instances of coverage unsupportive of U.S. and Israeli positions constitute a failure to the American taxpayer and to the objectives of public diplomacy.…... FULL TEXT
 
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