Is anyone listening to FNC? They have an Iraqi and an Arab fighting about the war. The man from Iraq was defending the US action. The other man was raving on and on about how the US doesn't have the support of the UN, EU or NATO. We know the truth, but that is the information on the Arab streets. It makes me sick. They worry about the terror of the bombs, not the daily terror of the tyrant.
I caught part of it.
Fact is, a couple of weeks ago the United Arab Emirates announced they were sending air support and troops.
Yeah, I saw it. At the same time, CNN & MSNBC had major coverage of anti war demonstrators. Fox let's the people decide. The others are for the sheeple.
I caught part of it.
Fact is, a couple of weeks ago the United Arab Emirates announced they were sending air support and troops.
What's really interesting to me is that the UAE is rising to counter Al-Jazeera:
Al-Jazeera battles UAE-based TV channels to bring Arabs best war coverage (
http://www.spacewar.com/2003/030322040743.qebeehk4.html) DUBAI (AFP) Mar 22, 2003
With the outbreak of war in Iraq two Arab satellite news channels are battling with Al-Jazeera to provide the best coverage of the conflict and win the hearts of some 300 million viewers.
Qatar's Al-Jazeera, which found fame for its impressive coverage of US operations in Afghanistan in late 2001, is now sharing the Arab news terrain with Abu Dhabi channel and with one-month-old Al-Arabiya.
With exclusive interviews, sometimes shocking images, and live reporting from all four corners of the world, all three channels are vying to attract Arab viewers, who since Al-Jazeera appeared in 1996 have turned away en masse from their much duller national networks.
All three are airing interviews with military analysts to inform viewers of the strategies of the key players in this new Gulf conflict, as well as closely following troops movements and developments.
But each channel has its own special strengths.
Abu Dhabi has carved out a niche for itself in southern Iraq, where on Friday it aired several live reports and shots from Umm Qasr as US and British helicopters deployed vehicles and troops near the port town before seizing it.
Prior to the conflict, the UAE-based channel launched a special "war studio" program dedicated to the hostilities, and is closely following allied troops movements into Iraq.
Al-Jazeera is meanwhile leading the field with live reports from Baghdad and especially from Mosul in the north. It has also strong coverage in northern Iraq's Kurdish region, which could see a Turkish military intervention from the north.
The news giant, which revolutionized the concept of free speech in the Arab world, appears to have the favor of Iraqi authorities, allowing it a freedom of movement unavailable to its rivals.
But it cannot closely follow US troops movements into Iraq because of a ban slapped on the channel in Kuwait.
Dubai-based Al-Arabiya, launched just over a month ago, is presenting itself as a "wise and balanced alternative" to maverick Al-Jazeera, which has offended virtually every regime in the Middle East by taking political taboos and other issues head on.
The more measured tone of Al-Arabiya may give it an edge in winning viewers in Kuwait and among those in the Arab world who find Al-Jazeera somewhat sensationalist.
Ali al-Hedeithy, head of the Middle East News (MEN) company which operates Al-Arabiya, said in February the channel would "offer Arab viewers an alternative, covering news far from any deliberate provocation."
Arab satellite news channels have come far in the decade since the 1991 Gulf War, when the American CNN network dominated war coverage.
Their popularity among Arab viewers is due to the quality of coverage but also, more essentially, because they are free of the censorship and official views imposed on the majority of national news networks in Arab states.
Since early Thursday, the start of the weekend in the Arab world and when US-led air strikes began in Iraq, Arabs around the Middle East have sat it out in front of their television sets following a war which they overwhelmingly oppose.
Abdel Bari Atwan, chief editor of the London-based Al-Qods Al-Arabi newspaper and a regular on Al-Jazeera, neatly summed up Arab sentiment.
"Baghdad is burning and our brother Arabs shift from one channel to another searching for the most terrible images, those that best express the crime of George W. Bush."