Praise For Al Jazeera, Not Bombs, From Obama Administration

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lauded the Arab network Al Jazeera for providing “real news” to viewers around the world and even within the United States, something she said American news networks are failing at in an “information war.”

Clinton said that Al Jazeera, which has been a TV staple in the Arab world for years and is beginning to make sweeping progress in expanding its English-language services, is “effective” in “changing people’s minds and attitudes.” While foreign outlets are producing “real news,” corporate-owned American cable networks are giving viewers a “million commercials” and “talking heads” without anything of substance.

“Al Jazeera has been the leader in that are literally changing people’s minds and attitudes. And like it or hate it, it is really effective,” she said.

“In fact viewership of al Jazeera is going up in the United States because it’s real news. You may not agree with it, but you feel like you’re getting real news around the clock instead of a million commercials and, you know, arguments between talking heads and the kind of stuff that we do on our news which, you know, is not particularly informative to us, let alone foreigners,” she added.

Clinton said that the US has dropped the ball since the Cold War, when VOA and others US broadcasts were influential.

“We have not really kept up with the times,” Clinton argued.

“We are in information war and we cannot assume that this youth bulge that exists not just in the middle east but in so many parts of the world really knows much about us. I mean we think they know us and reject us, I would argue the really don’t know very much about who we are,” she said, noting that America’s legacy of the Cold War, World War Two, and President Kennedy are lost on newer generations.

An example of the gulf between the two styles of coverage was apparent when Al Jazeera was the go-to network for coverage in the United States and around the world during the revolution in Egypt. Though not carried on most TV channel lineups, the website of Al Jazeera English often provides live streaming coverage.

The praise from Sec. Clinton  comes as a marked contrast from the open hostility towards Al Jazeera from the Bush administration, with the U.S. military even going so far as to bomb Al Jazeera reporters and President Bush reportedly considered ordering a strike on the network’s headquarters in Qatar, supposedly in jest.

Not surprisingly, the most conservative of American television news networks had a critical take on Clinton’s comments, although one former cable news reporter agreed with the Secretary of State’s remarks.

Fox News Channel’s Michael Clemente said he was “surprised and kind of curious” by Clinton’s remarks.

“We’ve got leadership issues there, the safety of people, the safety of our own people,” said Clemente, senior vice president for news. “Some big issues. All of a sudden there are headlines about Al-Jazeera versus the news in this country? It’s just surprising. Curious more than surprising.”

Representatives from CNN, ABC, CBS and NBC news all declined comment Friday on what Clinton said.

But former CNN Washington bureau chief Frank Sesno agreed with her assessment.

“She’s right,” said Sesno, who is now director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University.

“Cable news has become cable noise. It was intended to be an opportunity to inform people, and instead it has become an opportunity to inflame people.”

And right-wing commentator and TV personality Glenn Beck called Clinton’s take on Al Jazeera “insanity” and insisted that the Arab network was the ” propaganda arm of the Middle East and Islamic extremism.”

“We knew it was the propaganda arm of the Middle East and Islamic extremism,” he said. “We knew it. Now suddenly we’re all saying, oh, yeah, Al Jazeera, there’s real news for you.”