Is U.S. media a 'partner' with Al-Jazeera?

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Is U.S. media a 'partner' with Al-Jazeera?

James P. Pinkerton

May 3, 2005

If it bleeds, it leads. That cynical bit of media wisdom works to boost the ratings of local newscasts, but should it work for international news, too?

And does showing bloody and violent video from Iraq encourage the killing of Americans, and increase the likelihood of American failure in that country?

Dorrance Smith says yes. After a career at ABC News, then at the Bush 41 White House, and having most recently served as a media adviser to the U.S. occupation in Iraq, Smith published an op-ed in last week's Wall Street Journal accusing the U.S. media of "aiding and abetting" the enemy. That's why, he said, in "the battle for Iraqi hearts and minds ... we are losing badly."

Smith argued that Al-Jazeera, the Arab news network, is doing two bad things. First, it's providing propaganda points to the insurgents by publicizing their attacks in the Muslim world. The "collaboration" goes like this: Al-Jazeera would receive "advance knowledge of actions against coalition forces." Instead of tipping off authorities, the network would then "pre-position a crew at the event site and wait for the attack, record it and rush it on the air."

Second, Al-Jazeera provides Nielsen points to American broadcasters by supplying them with dramatic footage, to which they are "addicted."

In U.S. journalism, murky arrangements between reporters and criminals are common enough. Reporters make deals to go "inside" a street gang or a drug ring; they run the story, and then refuse to cooperate with police. Indeed, many states have enacted "shield" laws to protect pressies from being forced to disclose their sources. Some say these deals make journalists complicit in illegal activities. Others say, such deals are essential to the public's right to know.

These arrangements are oftentimes queasy to consider on the homefront, but they are much queasier to consider on the war front.

But Smith went further. He argued that American news networks, including Fox News (where I'm a contributor), are "strong partners" with Al-Jazeera in this hearts-and-minds struggle that America, he believes, is losing. Smith is a serious man making a serious charge, made all the more pertinent after yet another weekend of televised mayhem in Iraq.

But the story is more complicated than that, as Smith's proposed solutions reveal.

First, he suggests that American networks boycott such footage. Sometimes such voluntary blackouts can work. Nude "streaking," for example, was a bizarre kind of performance art at athletic events in the '70s, but when sportscasters stopped devoting television time to streakers, the phenomenon faded away.

But the war in Iraq is not a prank. What happens there is news. Should the American media not cover the fighting in Iraq as it is being fought? Is that a good precedent for the future? And if one media outlet were to break ranks and continue to air Al-Jazeera footage - would viewers migrate to that ornery outlet? Let's face it, Americans enjoy watching violence.

Second, Smith suggests that the United States use political pressure to minimize, or even eliminate, Al-Jazeera as a media enterprise. But in fact Al-Jazeera has already been kicked out of Iraq, and yet the network still manages to get its hands on provocative images. So even if the United States were further to play against Al-Jazeera, chasing it all the way back to its home base of operations in the country of Qatar, there's the danger of backlash and unintended consequences.

For one thing, America's reputation as a supporter of a free press, as part of democratization - however noxious that press might be - would be undercut. Moreover, other outlets, including Internet-based portals, would surely fill the void left by Al-Jazeera, defying the United States to try to censor them all.

America has already proven it can win the military battle of Iraq. But as Smith's angry piece demonstrates, it has yet to prove that it can win the larger and longer-term media war. And that's the ultimate conflict: the struggle of wills between America and its enemy.

James P. Pinkerton's e-mail ad- dress is pinkerto@ix.netcom.com.

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