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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.
IT’S ANNIVERSARY MONTH FOR AL JAZEERA ENGLISH, WHICH YEARNS TO BE APPRECIATED IN AMERICA
MAY 14, 2007 - 8:59AM PDT
Posted by Alvin Snyder
All posts by this author
The 6-month anniversary for Al Jazeera's English satellite TV channel comes up mid-month, and the many challenges that beset the organization appear to have bubbled to the surface in the months since the channel debuted November 16.
The big hurdle, of course, is to be seen by the multitudes of available TV viewers in America. This has not happened to date. Major American satellite and cable providers have not risked putting AJE on their systems because of its parent Arabic channel's controversial depiction of terrorists.
AJE's invisible American channel has reportedly frustrated AJE players across the board who had been led to believe early on that getting AJE on the air in America would be a slam dunk. This includes the channel’s marquee on-air presenters in Washington and London, the capable, veteran news executive staff, and the government of Qatar, which pays the bills.
The TV profession is rife with egos. For many broadcast stars it's not just the money that counts. It’s the rush of being on top and staying out front just to be seen and appreciated, and more is better.
Sir David Frost is one example. The British icon celebrity interviewer and now AJE star of the weekly interview show "Frost Over The World," doesn't do his present stint just for the money, although he reportedly has a multi-million dollar contract with AJE.
Frost became a household name in Britain and across the pond in America decades ago through his popular TV interview programs. But on AJE his audience in America is nil, a patchwork of subscription Internet streams and some regional satellite-cable hookups.
In his 1970 book, "The Americans," Frost said he was enjoying his "voyage of discovery through America more than anything I can recall," He expressed affection for everything in America from New York cabbies, to being able to get a free pack of matches with a pack of cigarettes.
Frost had been publicized as AJE's marquee Western on-air personality, with the channel banking that with his credibility and public adulation in America, he would help get the channel carried into millions of American homes by U.S. distributors.
In his book Frost also likened his interviews with interesting people as part of show business's "Craftsy Arts," where he can get a crowd around on television and just tell a story to entertain and inform them. He gets energized through the public's response to his broadcasts.
I recall my dinner years ago with Frost and his producer, Peter Baker, at Sardi's in New York's Times Square, when I was on the White House press office staff and coordinated the placement of government officials on his show and others. Frost had his own table positioned inside the entrance of Sardi's so that patrons had to walk by his table to get to theirs. He would complain all the while that he couldn't find time to eat because he was so busy signing autographs, even on napkins, but he loved it, or else he wouldn’t have had his regular table so strategically positioned.
I suspect he would be a much happier camper if his "Frost Over The World" included America, and he might want to hang around AJE a bit longer.
Another familiar face to American TV news viewers is former ABC News "Nightline" correspondent David Marash, now a major AJE news anchor. Marash told a New York Sun reporter Josh Gerstein that he was unhappy about the lack of major exposure to U.S. TV audiences. "It's disappointing, Of course, you want to play to your home crowd if you can," he said.
Frost and Marash, as known quantities in America, were to have provided much needed credibility to AJE to get it into American homes. If they are unhappy about not being carried big time in the US, so too may be the emir of Qatar, who pays their salaries and all the others. But beyond that, the emir would seem to desire adulation and attention just like TV stars.
The emir literally put Qatar on the map by establishing in 1996 what would become the landmark Al Jazeera Arabic channel, “to attract as much attention as the royal family next door in Saudi Arabia,” as we once wrote. It worked, and then some. But now Qatar is boxed out of America with its new AJE franchise. The powers that be in Qatar appears to be looking at the bottom line of their AJE expenditures, and what they are receiving as a return on investment.
The London Guardian's James Robinson notes that "staff at AJE claim there has been a financial clampdown," from Doha headquarters. "Apart from some highly paid presenters, many staff members are on salaries below industry norms," writes Robinson.
Those in Qatar, London, and Washington would be a lot happier than they are now if Americans might someday be permitted to show their appreciation for what the AJE folks are doing, and a lot more media attention would be just fine as well.
The day will have to come before too long.
Read Comments (2) | Add Your Own
 Read Comments:
A.S. on May 16, 2007 @ 9:42 am:
A.S Addendum -
Media analyst Morand Fachot E-mailed me his interesting comments from Geneva regarding AJE, posted here with his permission:
"I believe AJE could reach a significant audience in the USA if it were to join the newly-launched Joost distribution network, and similar platforms likely to emerge in the future.
”CNN has already signed up with Joost, as well as Warner Bros and Sony Pictures Television, with CBS also providing some programmes. Five companies, among them CBS Corp. and Viacom collectively invested $45m in the company last week. Watch for Joost as a serious distribution player next.”
"You can try it by registering and downloading a small programme [at http://www.joost.com]. Broadcast quality is reasonably good given the limited number of regular users to this services based on a P2P version of streaming video. The offer is still rather limited (mainly sci-fi, musical channels targeting mostly teenagers, cartoons, Indy races, soccer, silent flcks and cartoons), but it should improve as CNN, and others major players join.
”Furthermore, the two guys behind Joost, Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, seem to have a nose for launching pioneering services (such as Kazaa, or Skype, which they created in 2002 and... sold to eBay for $2.6bn in cash plus eBay stock in 2005)."
- Morand Fachot
Jim Zackey on May 18, 2007 @ 8:20 am:
Is US public diplomacy confident of getting a clear and accurate picture in crucial areas of diplomatic and security engagements? One can get two possible responses: One from people who are away from the trouble spots and have no direct contacts with those in the field of action. But when you listen to those who are on the ground risking limbs and lives to collect and distribute facts to help ascertain what are the sources of insecurity and hostility to US interest in, say, Iraq. It is essential to determine the relation between media and security. Especially from the aspect concerning whether the present available sources are sufficient enough or would there be any advantage if other sources could be added to bring an independent and fresh perspective.
Let's imagine that there is no Aljazeera any more. Would it solve the challenges US has faced prior and after the appearance of this tiny 'matchbox size' outlet.
Is it by mere chance that a campaign is pursued to deny the American viewers get the other side of the picture that doesn't usually make it on US media some of whom either co-opted by corporations and/or corruption?
It seems that the right of US viewers’ majority to have alternate news channels is being objected to by a handful but noisy few. Interestingly, many of such vocal elements possess no expertise either about the society in the Middle East its media, or the Arabic discourse on issues existing there. When it comes to decide if a foreign news channel is desirable or not, independent but informed input can be sought from those who qualify such as a writer on Middle Eastern media Hugh Miles, Political Science Professor Marc Lynch in view of their fluency in Arabic or from A.S. Schleifer, (founder, Trans-national Broadcasting Studies journal (TBS) and Adham Center for Television Journalism director Lawrence Pintak due to theirs years of studying Arab media and society.
One would expect media activists to ask the major US channels draw adequate attention to matters that are of vital concern for American lives. But many are found silent on most occasions. Some are observed busy to attract attention on irrelevant and insignificant issues.
Media activist should encourage even wider access to channels like Al Jazeera that provides objective coverage of critical foreign policy and security issues, while many US media organs tiptoe around issues in fear of not to over step their boundaries. If all is well (as some wish to portray) then how come US is going to face such high cost and its even higher consequences as the following quick example suggests:
According to Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Columbia University professor and Nobel laureate, so many soldiers are being injured that the costs of caring for them over their lifetimes is likely to be $350 billion, or up to twice that, depending on how long the war lasts. The high cost is the result of huge advances in military medicine that have greatly reduced the chances that a soldier injured in Iraq will die. As a result, the ratio of injuries to deaths 16:1 by his estimate is higher than in any other war in U.S. history.
Those who call for restricting plurality of opinion deny the option of diversity and deprive the US audience to judge the facts for themselves. It is the absence of and NOT presence of an accountable media that is injurious to American interest.
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