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In the past few years, the U.S. has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on its two Arab-language media outlets, Radio Sawa and TV AlHurra. But is the “public diplomacy” working? A new study suggests that not only are the two outlets not winning hearts and minds; they might be actively losing them. The study’s author, Mohammed el-Nawawy, tells Bob about his results.
The news from the Mideast this week was both eerily familiar and newly terrifying. A hostage-taking turned conflagration quickly involved Israel, Lebanon and Gaza in reciprocal bombings. Press in the U.S. struggled to find context and reflexively reviewed the past, but in the Middle East news outlets covered an immediate, unfolding story. Susan Caskie, international editor for The Week magazine, joins Bob for a roundup.
Hundreds of Egyptian journalists filled the street in front of Cairo’s Parliament building this week and went on strike after a proposed statute kept open the possibility of prison terms for reporters who criticize the president, his cabinet or even legislators. Despite the outcry, the law passed mostly intact. BBC correspondent Heba Saleh tells Brooke that although the protest was small, it made a big splash.
In Pakistan, a new television show on the popular GEO TV channel has sparked a national conversation about a set of laws known as the Hudood Ordinance, which, among other things, sentences adulterous women to death by stoning. As a result, the laws are under review and real reform may be on the way. Bob talks with Islamabad-based freelance reporter Gretchen Peters about the buzz the show’s created.
Ask an American about Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s foreign policy agenda, and there’s a good chance you’ll hear about the president’s remark that Israel “should be wiped off the map.” For eight months, news media have all but fused the phrase to Ahmadinejad’s name; many see it as a portent of Iran’s nuclear aspirations. But might Ahmadinejad have been mistranslated? New York Times deputy foreign editor Ethan Bronner examined the question, and tells Brooke what he found.
As news of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s death spread around the world Thursday, the photo of his lifeless face was nearly impossible to miss. For U.S. and Iraqi security forces, the image of Zarqawi – dead, mounted, and framed – represented a decisive victory. But RAND Corporation terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman tells Bob that as a media phenomenon, the image might ultimately become the opposite of what its framers intended.
The alleged massacre at Haditha, first reported by Time Magazine, commanded headlines this week. As the press waited for results from internal investigations, comparisons to My Lai massacre were not uncommon. Which reminded us of something Army Lieutenant Colonel Robert Bateman told us right before the Iraq war – that “embedding” the media with the military might prevent future My Lais. We called up Bateman to see if he still thinks so.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has broken a decades-old epistolary freeze with the U.S., but the White House wants no part of it. Meanwhile, an aide to Ayatollah Ali Khomeini has sent his own letter to Time magazine; it strikes a very different tone from the President’s. Washingtonpost.com columnist Jefferson Morley joins Bob to survey the international press reaction to the high-profile correspondence.
