WASHINGTON: As Under Secretary of State Karen Hughes completed her "listening tour" of five Arab and Muslim countries, she acknowledged that her job requires a long-term strategy. A key component of this strategy not frequently discussed is the role of Arab media representation here in the United States.
There are about 50 Arab correspondents working in the United States for major Arab media outlets, and they make up the most influential source of news about the United States for Arab people.
A handful work in New York covering the United Nations, but most are based in Washington, from where they enjoy unrivaled access to Arab living rooms via broadcasts on TV stations such as Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya and articles in daily newspapers, including Al Hayat and Al Sharq al Awsat.
That this small cadre of correspondents exerts such broad influence on the so-called "Arab street" would be less objectionable if their reporting were informed and objective. Instead, Arab media coverage of the United States and its policies reflects the correspondents' limited understanding of the country and its history and creates a skewed image of the United States and its policies among Arabs.
The shallowness of the coverage is due in large part to the insularity of the Washington-based Arab journalists. Reporters rarely, if ever, travel outside Washington, leaving them ill-prepared to cover such heartland issues as the teaching of creationism in Kansas schools or the battle over immigration in Texas.
These issues are of interest to Arab audiences, the Kansas debate because it highlights the tension between America's religious and secular traditions, the Texas case because it shows that Americans' wariness of immigrants extends beyond Arabs and Muslims.
Yet these and other important stories go unreported in the Arab media. Most correspondents report exclusively on Beltway matters, reflecting an attitude expressed by an Al Jazeera reporter at a recent media conference in Washington who said, "It does not really matter what is going on in Seattle or San Francisco."
Some coverage, moreover, merely recycles reports from major American newspapers, replacing nuanced analysis with allusions to familiar themes. A reworked article about U.S. aid to Israel, for example, might trim discussion of the policy debate and instead emphasize the influence of Jewish groups or evangelical Christians on the Bush administration.
Such reporting clouds readers' understanding of the American decision-making process while furthering the conspiracy theories that circulate so widely in the Arab world.
Arab media coverage is also problematic for what it does not report. The State Department's annual report on human rights, for example, presented unsurprising evidence of human rights violations throughout the Arab world, but was ignored or underreported by major Arab media.
This reflects the fact that most Arab media companies are controlled by authoritarian Arab regimes or their cronies.
The intimate relationship between Arab media and Arab regimes can make it difficult to distinguish journalists from embassy attachés when Arab officials come to Washington. Each journalist accommodates the visitor as if he were the journalist's boss.
At the same time, American efforts to present a clearer picture of American society and policies have been largely inconsequential. Washington sponsors an array of Arabic-language media outlets, including Al Hurra TV, Radio Sawa and Hi Magazine, but despite generous funding ($62 million to Al Hurra in 2004 alone), these stations and publications have failed to win a significant Arab following or to boost American credibility in the region.
A better solution is needed. In order to further its declared goal of promoting democracy in the Arab world, the United States must win the Arabs' trust. The popularity of Al Jazeera and the ineffectiveness of Al Hurra show that only independent Arab media outlets can establish that trust.
For Arab audiences to get a more complete picture of U.S. decision-making processes and goals, the United States must ensure that more Arab reporters come to America to cover the news. An initiative to invite Arab journalists to America and educate them about American history and government would be a crucial first step.
By working with, rather than against, the few existing credible Arab media outlets, the United States could help more Arab reporters cover more of America, and Arab audiences would begin to decide for themselves whether what happens in Seattle and San Francisco matters to them.
(Mohamed Elmenshawy is the editor in chief of Taqrir Washington, a new Arabic-language news and information service sponsored by the World Security Institute in Washington.)
