A war of imagery

The incomprehensible ire of Fouad Ajami

FOUAD AJAMI, American of Muslim Lebanese origin, winner of the MacArthur Award, Professor of International Affairs at Princeton and Johns Hopkins University, distinguished Arabist, has taken time off to be a professional television watcher. And his focus has been on Al Jazeera TV, the Arabic channel headquartered in Qatar, which has made an awkward intervention in world affairs, smudging the well-defined images we would otherwise have had from CNN and BBC.

We in the non-Arabic speaking world have no idea of the tenacious hold Al Jazeera has on its global 65 million viewers. During a recent journey through the Arab world, I searched for BBC and CNN whereas my hosts persisted with Al Jazeera, translating the telecasts for me.
‘‘Al Jazeera is not subtle television,’’ Fouad Ajami complains in the New York Times Magazine.

Recently, during a lull in its non-stop coverage of raids on Afghanistan and the street battles of Bethlehem, the channel showed a documentary on Ernesto (Che) Guevara. ‘‘Presenting Che as a romantic, doomed hero, the documentary recounted the Marxist rebel’s last stand in the remote mountains of Bolivia, lingering mournfully over the details of his capture and execution. Even Che’s corpse received a lot of airtime. Al Jazeera loves grisly footage and is never shy about presenting graphic imagery.’’

Ajami’s tone is continuously complaining, and it soon becomes clear why. ‘‘The episode’s subject matter was of course allegorical.’’ The effort was to place on Osama bin Laden’s head the halo that adorned Che Guevara. And this Ajami finds distasteful. ‘‘The channels promos are particularly shameless.’’ And why are they ‘‘shameless’’? Because ‘‘one clip juxtaposes a scowling George Bush with a poised, almost dreamy bin Laden.’’ So now we know whose side Ajami is on. Ajami has churned out an angry 5,000 word article.

Then he gripes about Al Jazeera’s panelists, apparently because they happen to be ‘‘pan Arabists or nationalists of a leftist bent, or Islamists who draw their inspiration from the primacy of the Muslim faith’’. Is there something subversively wrong about a panel so configured? After the panelists, it is the turn of the Al Jazeera reporters to receive some lambasting. ‘‘Since their primary allegiance is to fellow Muslims, not Muslim states, the reporters and editors have no qualms about challenging the wisdom of today’s Arab rulers.’’ Why should they not?

And worse, in Ajami’s view, ‘‘Al Jazeera is a crafty operation.’’ What is wrong with craft? ‘‘In covering the Intifada, its broadcasters perfected a sly game — namely mimicking western norms of journalistic fairness.’’ Pray, why should Al Jazeera be chastised for mimicking something Ajami clearly sets up as some sort of a model. There is a caveat: Al Jazeera mimics western fairness but continues to ‘‘pander to a pan Arab sentiment’’. Is the projection of a pan Arab sentiment a sin?

Ajami is far too intelligent a man to have attempted a prosecution case against Al Jazeera which is riddled with so many holes. Clearly, the professor is besides himself, shaking with rage at a provocation not easy to comprehend.

The United States of America is embarked on war. When wars break out, the well-worn cliche has it, the first casualty in news coverage is the truth. That which is beamed to the American public — and to all of us — by Fox News Channel and CNN (plus a host of other channels) keeps the nation mobilised, in a state of perpetual jingoism, which, in turn, continuously pushes up the ratings of the President and the Networks.

To break the monotony of this ultra patriotic news coverage, and for contrived credibility, the networks take recourse to what Ajami calls a ‘‘sly game’’. It is, ironically, as part of this sly game that Ajami is called in frequently for his expert comments, to penetrate the Arab mind — indeed, to be an interpreter of the ‘‘other side’’.
By intervening unexpectedly in the international information order, Al

Jazeera has created a situation where the professional interpreters of the Arab world, the resident intellectuals patronised by the American establishment, are feeling threatened. There is a redundancy factor staring at them. If Al Jazeera will bring you news, views, panels with all shades of Arab intelligentsia, why would anyone fall back on a resident expert?

Ajami reports with pain that ‘‘the doors in official Washington’’ have opened before Al Jazeera’s reporters. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice have all been interviewed. What Ajami does not know is that Al Jazeera has been invited to 10 Downing Street and numerous such addresses as well. Would Ajami’s anger subside if he too were invited? Ajami advises the US establishment ‘‘not to give a helping hand’’ to Al Jazeera. Because this way ‘‘Arab radicalism’’ would be encouraged.

It is amazing the high tolerance level Ajami demonstrates for Fox Channel’s analysts and reporters describing Osama bin Laden a ‘‘dirtbag’’, a ‘‘monster’’ and his Al-Qaeda ‘‘terror goons’’ or the ‘‘diabolical’’ Taliban and their ‘‘henchmen’’.

Geraldo Rivera, the Fox war correspondent, telecasts his anger in this fashion. I would like to kill bin Laden, he says. He says he is carrying a gun for this purpose.

Since this sort of hysteria has pushed up the channel’s rating beyond the sky, CNN is working overtime to find ways to cope with the competition. All anchors have been advised to make a reference to September 11 on every Afghan telecast.

The new mantra for American journalism, as spelt out by Roger Ailes of Fox News, is: ‘‘Be accurate, be fair, be American.’’

Really, Professor Ajami, that’s the sort of stuff I would worry about.

If the great American liberal media changes all its ground in a moment of hysteria, then I am afraid Americans are conceding a much bigger victory to Osama bin Laden than they themselves are aware of.

And I am not even talking about the proposed military courts and 1,200 people held incommunicado without recourse to appeal.

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