Al Jazeera’s Listening Post

What does American media look like in Al Jazeera’s eyes? Not good, not good at all.

WrittenBy:Aastha Manocha
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Turns out we’re not the only ones interested in keeping an eye on the media. Al Jazeera – the “first English language news channel headquartered in the Middle-East” – has its own programme to review global media called Listening Post.

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We watched a couple of its episodes and frankly, given Al Jazeera’s other, quite wonderful, programming, this was something of a let-down. But only where critiquing the American media was concerned.

The episode titled “Media mea culpa and the Iraq war” looked at the American media almost being hoodwinked into supporting America’s war on Iraq and believing the WMD premise. The programme went all out after the American media, bringing in critics and providing some admittedly good trivia about Phil Donahue being fired from MSNBC for not taking a pro-war stance and Washington Post not publishing an op-ed criticising American media’s gullibility in accepting the Pentagon’s version of events.

Given the backdrop of the 10th anniversary of Iraq’s invasion and the introspection the occasion warranted it also had some stinging lines for the media. Such as, “Failure to admit mistakes means failure to learn from them”, and also asked whether news media is better today after that “low watermark”. Ouch!

However, some “full disclosure” would have been appreciated. The programme’s host Richard Gizbert is a former ABC News correspondent who had won a wrongful termination case against his employers after being fired. He had claimed that he was fired because of his refusal to go to Iraq to cover the war. In light of that history, the objectivity of the topic of at least this episode was suspect. Also, in between all the critics there wasn’t even one voice to support American media – however feeble.

Contrast it to Listening Post’s special edition on Marshall McLuhan, the media theorist of the “medium is the message” fame. The first half of the programme dwelled on how his ideas seemed almost prophetic in this age of internet and social media. The second half had an interview with a critic of the internet’s powers. Even here some subjectivity crept in. The host got away with asking the critic, Evgeny Morozov, if “there are people out there who think you’re a grump?” What’s that got to do with anything, Gizbert?

However, to give credit where due, it is hard to imagine that a heavily-accented Belarusian critic of the hopes pinned on the internet and Silicon Valley would get a huge chunk of airtime on any other network.

Also, to keep giving credit where due, in the second half of the American media-bashing episode was an illuminating story on China’s influence on Kenyan media. Yes you read that right. Apparently, to protect its investments in infrastructure in African countries, China is investing in the continent’s media to help it gain control on public opinion. So much so that many of the stories in Kenyan newspapers now carry a Xinhua byline. And those stories are often putting a positive spin on relations with China.

The programme also made a very important point about how Africans who have long complained of their portrayal in the media, may like the Chinese media’s subtle Africa-is-improving-thanks-to-China pitch.

So the next time you watch hungry Somalians on TV you might in a perverse way be pushing Africa into China’s arms. That is the power of media. If it wasn’t for Listening Post, we’d never have never known that.

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