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Exclusive: Al-Jazeera in Burlington
Guest Column | By John Stuart | June 3, 2008
When Al-Jazeera tried to launch in the U.S. a spin-off version, Al-Jazeera
International, they ran into opposition in the form of Accuracy in Media (AIM).
AIM produced a DVD entitled Terror
Television: The Rise of Al-Jazeera and the Hate America Media, which
exposed Al-Jazeera's anti- American biases and support for terrorism.
In September of 2006, AIM commissioned a poll to gauge Americans' view of
having Al-Jazeera air in the U.S.
The poll results showed that by a margin of 2-1, Americans think the U.S. government should oppose giving the new
channel access to the U.S.
media market.
The AIM Press Release of September 13, 2006, points out that:
Al-Jazeera International, an English-language sister network to the
Arabic Al-Jazeera, has been desperately seeking carriage on U.S. cable and
satellite systems. It has hired well-known media figures such as David Frost,
Dave Marash and Riz Khan, and its expensive new television studios are under
construction on K Street N.W.
in Washington, D.C.
But the new AIM poll finds that the channel's launch is opposed by more
than one-half (53 percent) of the American people, a figure which dwarfs the
number of those (29 percent) supporting it. What's more, 38 percent of the
American people were adamantly against the channel.
In a FOX News televised debate with the then top U.S.
journalist at Al-Jazeera English, Dave Marash, AIM's Cliff Kincaid reported on
documented evidence that captured terrorists in Iraq
had testified that they were motivated to go to Iraq
to kill U.S.
soldiers by the images they saw on Al-Jazeera's Arabic stations. In addition, he
pointed to documentation of close connections between Al-Jazeera and the former
regime of Saddam Hussein.
Kincaid also pointed out that Retired Army Intelligence officer and
columnist Ralph Peters, who is nothing if he is not is blunt, called their correspondents
"Killers with Cameras." He has written that "Al-Jazeera is so
consumed by hatred of America
and the West that the network would rather see Iraq
collapse into a bloodbath than permit the emergence of a democracy sponsored by
Washington."
Rather than deny these allegations, Marash simply insisted that Al-Jazeera
English would be free from influence of the parent company and not have the
same biases.
Well, as they say, "That was then, this is now." Recently, Marash
has stepped down from the station, citing a "reflexive adversarial
editorial stance" against Americans at Al-Jazeera English.
Americans are not the only ones with a beef against Al-Jazeera. In a
February 2007 blog entry, AIM reported that the Iraqi government issued the
following statement: "The Al-Jazeera channel continues in its overtly
hostile attitude towards the Iraqi people and continues to contribute to the
spread of death and destruction by adopting a line that is frankly hostile to
the Iraqi people and government. We condemn this attitude and call on
parliament to take a firm position on this channel and resort to all legal
means to prevent it continuing its hostile policy."
The result of AIM's heroic efforts was that no major cable station in America was
willing to carry Al-Jazeera English. In spite of all the nationwide opposition
to carrying Al-Jazeera English, however, Burlington Telecom - a local
municipally owned station - decided to carry it.
The move to bring Al-Jazeera to Burlington
met with some immediate local opposition. According to a local Burlington resident who is now spearheading
the opposition, "The prior general manager of BT (Burlington Telecom)
brought Al-Jazeera online unilaterally, without formal approval from the Mayor
or City Council. Apparently he did brief the council, but told them Al Jazeera
is just like the BBC and CNN." Subscriptions have been floundering. There
are 15,000 potential customers and only 2,300 have subscribed thus far.
Perhaps it was this opposition, coupled with the bleak financial future that
now confronts BT, which led to a decision by the current general manager simply
to drop Al-Jazeera. This was a move that should not have been much of a
surprise since they had no contract to begin with. But when the local
"Peace and Justice" groups got wind of this, they started to scream
about violations of free speech. This resulted in a publicly-televised event
set up to explore the question as to why Al-Jazeera was being dropped. Of
course, no such public inquiries have been made as to why it was picked up in
the first place.
At this event, members of the newly formed Defenders Council of Vermont challenged the notion that the right to free speech included the right to
taxpayer-subsidized airing of one's speech. It was suggested that the free
speech issue was a Red Herring argument that could lead to an end of the real
debate on whether BT's listeners are well served by carrying Al-Jazeera.
Then on Tuesday, May 27th, a public meeting was held by BT's advisory groups
in order to determine what their recommendation to the telecommunications
company should be. The following was reported to me by a member of the
Defenders Council of Vermont who was able to attend.
Of approximately 100 members of the public, 25 elected to speak to the issue
in front of a committee consisting of about 12 board members. Of those 25
people, more than two thirds spoke in favor of airing Al-Jazeera. Each was
given the space of one minute in which to air his/her views. Some complained
that those who objected to airing Al-Jazeera were simply discriminating against
a badly maligned people. Others echoed that sentiment, speaking of a
"disturbing sense of fear and hatred of Islam" they had noted in Burlington. Another
pointed out that, after all, Al-Jazeera was among some of the favorite
programming in Israel.
Free speech and censorship issues were a constant refrain.
On the other hand, others who wished to see Al-Jazeera stopped spoke of the
lives lost on the battlefields in the Middle East
and the documented evidence that some of them were enticed to become suicide
bombers while listening to Al-Jazeera. Another reminded us of the contradiction
inherent in the idea of being tolerant of those who only know
intolerance. Still another mentioned that the very idea of such programming was
an insult to patriotic Americans, Burlington's
Jewish population, and soldiers, either on active duty or veterans of the
present conflict in Iraq.
Since Burlington Telecom is a public utility, and one that is presently losing
money, someone observed that it was important that the people running it be
allowed to make a business decision that was untainted with politics.
A speaker near the end of the public session identified the heart of the
matter. He reminded us that we are at war, that the freedoms enshrined by the
Founding Fathers were not intended to be limitless, nor were they intended,
when written in our Constitution, for any by our own people.
Within the next three weeks, there will be another public meeting. However,
it may allow only a two minute expression of opinion.
Meanwhile, it is far fetched to think this battle will be won and certainly
not easily won. Those who expressed embarrassment about living in one
of only two cities in the entire United States to air Al- Jazeera
were told that they were in the minority. One should, instead, be proud. And
indeed, Burlington Vermont is a very good, and strategic place
to establish roots if you have a long-term plan.
Education is the key. And it is not just education about radical Islam. It
is education about the freedoms we take for granted (and about which it seems
we really know very little), and which radical Islam is using against
us....whether it is freedom of speech or freedom of religion, or the right to a
fair trial in our courts.
Freedom of speech, as conceived by the Founders, is a negative freedom, as
are all the others. We, in America,
enjoy freedom from interference by the government in our expression of speech.
If it were a positive freedom, that would mean that we as individuals
were entitled to that free speech. In other words, someone...most likely
the government.... would have to provide us with the way to get that speech out
there.
As originally written, the freedom to say what you want does not mean you
will be given the podium as well. It does not mean you will be given a radio or
TV station on which to express your views. You may speak but people are not
thereby forced to listen, or to subsidize your speech, as would be the
case with a government-supported media outlet like Burlington Telecom.
How very important it becomes, in fighting against an implacable enemy, to
know why it is important that we win. Only when we know what we would
lose and what we fight for do we have a chance of being victorious.
The question still stands before us: do the citizens of Burlington
want publicly to support a station with ties to a media outlet which has been
instrumental in encouraging terrorists to come to Iraq and engage in battle with the
men and women of OUR armed forces?
Is that how we support the troops?
John Stuart is the president of Defenders Council of Vermont. Their mission is to build Vermonters’ understanding of America’s heritage, support our Armed Services and educate Vermont’s citizens about the nature, reality, and threat of radical Islam. This article first appeared on FamilySecurityMatters.org
Guest columns do not necessarily reflect the views of Accuracy in Media or its staff.
4 Comments | Post a Comment
Well written article. We wouldn’t even need this discussion if children were required to say the pledge of allegiance and prayer were still in the schools. Children still watch TV though...don’t they? They are not morons, but they are influenced greatly by what they are exposed to as the “truth”. We have a lot of adult looking children in this country. You know, the kind that don’t know what is at stake and take for granted the security and freedoms won by the shed blood of others. Another point; the victims of 9/11 got real close the the enemy. Track Lebanon...it used to be called the Switzerland of the middle east...they got real close to the enemy too. Don’t have to work in the sewer to know it stinks.
The idea of Al Jazeera operating in America bothers me. The idea of Muslim mosques being allowed to teach hatred here bothers me. Just think if and when, school vouchers get in place, we taxpayers can be paying for those schools.
At the same time, the blatant bias of Fox News bothers me as well.
The lack of true media in this country bothers me. WE do not have a news media. WE have a propanganda organ.
The images of the war in Iraq would probably make people in the ME join the other side, no doubt about it. The article doesn’t say the images were false - just the effect they had.
Our media has certainly used ‘experts’ to produce the effect the government wanted.
Yes, I’m thinking our schools do not teach patriotism, and once again, when we get school vouchers, there will be many schools that will teach just the opposite.
My Grandson told me Iraq attacked us on 9/11. I asked why he thought that and he said his teacher told him that. That’s alarming.
So while we are outraged that Al Jazeera might be allowed to operate here, we should be just as outraged that our media is not being honest either.
Not sure what ‘Switzerland of the ME’ means, or what happened between times, but we were doing some undercover things in Lebanon in the late 50’s.
We need to drop the scales from our eyes and really look at this situation. Any government that would even entertain the idea of allowing Al Jazeera to operate here, or hate preaching mosques to operate here, OR our borders to remain open and inviting for anything and anyone to cross, isn’t really working to protect this country.
Why are we going to the other side of the world to protect us, and then leaving the door open and inviting the enemy into our country.
June 3 at 6:17 pm | #1 | Link
Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer.
If “Tail gunner Joe” had kept up with the party by reading the Worker, he might have known better what the objective was. Instead he spun into an incoherent, rabid animal damaging thousands of innocent people and the reputation of the entire U.S. Government.
Are we such weak willed morons that the mere sight of any propaganda, except our own, scares us? Their B.S. stinks as bad and is just as deadly as ours.
It’s the same pile viewed from the other side.