The Princess and the Facebook Girl
Issue 5, Spring 2008 Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, there lived a beautiful princess. Hers was a fairytale existence of spectacular palaces and footmen with gleaming swords and, of…
Boycotting Al Jazeera
CAIRO, Egypt (March 26, 2008) – It appears that Israel is taking a page from the George W. Bush book of public diplomacy: attempting to influence coverage by Arab media by boycotting the most…
Satellite TV News and Arab Democracy
Vol. 2 No. 1 Feb. 2008 -- The red and white banners of Lebanon's anti-Syrian protests in the spring of 2005 were a testament to the transformational power of the Arab media revolution. Without…
Darfur: Covering the “forgotten” story
Issue 2, Summer 2007 There is no issue in Arab journalism today that is more controversial than how the region’s media cover Darfur. Not Iraq, where, according to a new report from the Arab…
Middle East Heading for a New Cold War?
CAIRO, 20 January 2007 — Bush administration efforts to forge a US-Arab alliance against Iran are threatening to produce a new Middle East Cold War, with dangerous implications for regional…
Insurgent TV Coming to a Satellite Near You?
(Jan. 10, 2007) A controversial TV channel that is the voice of Iraq’s anti-American insurgents looks set to open another front in the propaganda war against the U.S. The head of Al-Zawraa, which…
Cairo Ignores U.S. Request to Pull Plug on Jihadi TV in Iraq
(Jan. 4, 2007) Sunni-Shia power politics and U.S.-Egyptian relations are at the center of a dispute over a satellite television station that is the latest weapon in the arsenal of Iraq’s…
Will Al-Jazeera English Find Its Groove?
Bad news is often good news for journalists. Last week’s assassination of Lebanese opposition leader Pierre Gemayel may have been exactly that for Al-Jazeera English, the Westernized cousin of…
Al-Jazeera English: Day One Report Card
Published on Thursday, November 16, 2006 by Der Speigel Call it the Un-CNN. Imagine that the BBC devotes 24 hours to special coverage of Africa and the Middle East and you will get a sense of the…
Al Jazeera’s Chief: “We are not politically-correct”
Published on Wednesday, November 15, 2006 Al-Jazeera is neither a mouthpiece for Osama bin Laden nor is it in touch with the al Qaeda leader. That�s the claim from the Qatar-based broadcasting…
America’s Media Bubble
CAIRO (Oct. 19, 2006) — The United States no longer controls the script. That's a reality Democratic congressional leaders must digest as they seek to recast America's relationship with…
The Middle East: It’s all just too darned complicated
First Published: October 2, 2006 Memo: To Arabs and Muslims Re: The Middle East It’s your own fault. That’s right, the Bush administration can’t be held responsible for the mess they have…
