Posted on 04/18/2003 4:16:03 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Iraq TV: No Propaganda
CNN Refuses to Participate But TV Channel Chairman Says it Will be Unbiased
By Michele Greppi
A new U.S. government-backed television service in Iraq will air American news programming with Arabic-language captioning. But it is not meant to improperly influence anyone or spread any false information, according to Norm Pattiz, chairman of radio distributor Westwood One and chairman of the government-backed Broadcasting Board of Governors. Rather, Mr. Pattiz said, it will offer unfettered news coverage in the region, which will be a first for many viewers accustomed to state-controlled broadcasts.
"What we are going to do is not propaganda," Mr. Pattiz said. "Our mission is to provide accurate, reliable and credible information. We are an example of the free press."
Mr. Pattiz spoke out late last week after CNN refused to provide any of its content for the service, which will include unedited repeats of ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer, NBC Nightly News and Fox News Special Report With Brit Hume.
In a statement, a CNN spokesman said: "We didn't think that as an independent, global news organization it was appropriate to participate in a United States government video transmission."
CNN was not the only news organization to raise questions. "I don't think it is a simple issue," said CBS News President Andrew Heyward, noting that he was "skeptical" on first hearing that the project would be funded by the government and operated by the Middle East Committee of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, a semi-autonomous communications agency of the State Department. A start-up fund of $3 million was scheduled for a vote Friday in Congress.
The committee launched last year in the Middle East, under the direction of Radio Sawa News Director Moaufac Harb and consultant Bill Headline, a former CBS News and CNN executive.
What convinced CBS's Mr. Heyward that "this is a good thing to do … a patriotic thing to do" were conversations with "some of the most traditional-minded colleagues" at CBS News and with Mr. Pattiz.
Mr. Heyward and other news executives were assured by Mr. Pattiz that the newscasts would not be edited and that they would be accurately captioned for broadcast, some 12 hours after airing in the United States. Only about 10 percent of Iraqis are believed to have TV sets or access to TV. Few have seen any newscast not produced by the regime of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
In addition to the 3½ hours of American newscasts each night, the Iraqi channel is expected to present some 2½ hours of news using the resources of Radio Sawa, an Arab-language music and news channel. Mr. Pattiz assured the news organizations that the programming he is packaging will not be "intermingled" with radio and TV programming being broadcast under the U.S. Air Force "psy ops" plan dubbed Commando Solo as it flies over Iraq for six hours at a time.
The debate over the new TV services arose Friday, the same day CNN's chief news executive, Eason Jordan, got some dark secrets off his chest in a New York Times op-ed piece about "awful things that could not be reported" during the 12 years CNN operated a bureau in Baghdad. He described a plot to kill CNN staffers, which was foiled, and recounted examples of staffers and other Iraqis who were kidnapped, tortured and worse. "At last, these stories can be told freely," he wrote.
Why would Iraqis want ot watch Peter Jennings or Dan Rather.
Fox News, I think, is an excellent window on America for the Iraqi people.
They didn't seem to have a problem "participating" in Iraqs government run news orginazation. :)
Yet they were perfectly comfortable participating in Saddam's government video transmissions. Typical CNN... Hate America first!
!!!!! Do you suppose he changed his last name to match his career? How bizarre!
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