Kazakhstan RPCV Kevin Marousek says he was watching C Span and the Washington Bureau Chief of Al Jazeera, Hafez Al-Mirazi, was speaking to a committee on public diplomacy and the media
I was watching C Span tonight and the Washington Bureau Chief of Al Jazeera, Hafez Al-Mirazi, was speaking to a committee on public diplomacy and the media. He explained that Al Jazeera, like the BBC, was created and supported with public funds, but the plan was to be privately funded through advertising after five years. Problem was, Al Jazeera was televising interviews with human rights activists, feminists and the like, which caused governments of some of the hard line mid-east countries to apply pressure on would-be advertisers. Long story short, to get advertsing dollars, Al Jazeera has to have a more hard-line bias.
I found this in striking contrast to US media, which still chooses to villify Muslims. How many documentaries have they produced about women who wear burkas or the strict schools of Muslims? I know, having volunteered in the Peace Corps I have a huge bias, but I don't often see coverage of a country like Kazakhstan, a Muslim country in Central Asia. I served there and can attest the Muslim women there wore tighter, more revealing clothes than any American I've ever seen... including Britney Spears. Having worked in an all-Muslim school, I can attest to the fact students are allowed to read from books other than the Koran. They can dance and play music that has nothing to do with Allah (God). And on one day which made me smile, I conducted a lesson where my high-school aged students were to locate various cities and countries on a world map... and not one of them knew where Mecca was.
My point is, there are lapsed Muslims just like there are lapsed Catholics, but I don't see a lot of media coverage about them. Countries like Turkey have gone to great (some say draconian) lengths to reduce the number of Islamic Fundamentalists on their soil. Nobody mentions that. Nobody mentions any of it. I watched CBS news over the weekend and I don't think they showed anyone with dark skin unless he was holding a gun.
If Al Jazeera shows the moderates, they lose income. If they try to broadcast an alternative point of view... governments issue threats of violence. So which is worse... Al Jazeera, who has to air one sided broadcasts... or US media, who chooses to air them?
Kevin Marousek, RPCV
