June 19 (Bloomberg) — Josh Rushing has gone from Marine Corps spokesman (the role in which he appeared in the 2004 documentary “Control Room'’) to Washington-based reporter for Al Jazeera, known in some quarters as Osama bin Laden’s favorite TV network.
A profound conversion by most standards, though in his memoir “Mission Al Jazeera'’ Rushing argues it was a natural progression.
A Texan who studied history and religion at the University of Texas, Rushing also carries a vibrant copy of the warrior gene. He had a bulldog (the Marine Corps mascot) tattooed on his buttocks and joined up at age 17.
He will need that fighting spirit at Al Jazeera English, which hopes to expand the network’s influence in the English- speaking world. He insists he is making inroads.
Rushing (writing with Sean Elder) has created an interesting, if sometimes earnest, narrative. The book’s subtitle is “Build a Bridge, Seek the Truth, Change the World.'’
His world has certainly changed.
Though he held the Marines “sacred,'’ he became increasingly disillusioned during the run-up to the Iraq invasion. He chirped official warnings about weapons of mass destruction and called Saddam Hussein “a Hitler'’ who had “violated international law long enough.'’ But increasingly he felt he was doing political hackwork instead of acting as a nonpartisan source of military information.
He now says he regrets that performance.
Showing It All
As the key contact between the military and Al Jazeera (sometimes serving as an interview subject), Rushing says, he came to admire the network’s willingness to broadcast the horrors of war — in contrast to the U.S. media’s war coverage, which he viewed with increasing sourness.
In a 2004 interview with the Village Voice, he said that in the U.S. media “we don’t see blood, we don’t see suffering.'’ Al Jazeera, by contrast, “shows it all. It turns your stomach, and you remember there’s something wrong with war.'’
Those views did not sit well with the brass, who pressured Rushing — and his wife — to hold their tongues. Instead, he resigned, in August 2004, after 14 years of service.
“I shed the uniform,'’ he writes, “but not the purpose.'’
Rushing, who cites a family tradition of “civic responsibility,'’ believes Al Jazeera English, which launched Nov. 15, 2006, will act as a counterbalance to an American media “derelict'’ in its coverage of Iraq and of an administration whose Middle East policies are “dangerous.'’
Larger War
As a midlevel communications officer in the Marines, he tried to broaden his superiors’ point of view. “Look beyond the battle for Iraq,'’ he told them; “we were dealing with the larger war on terror, and if we didn’t reach a broader audience, we were going to lose that war.'’
Rushing provides a bit of corporate background, explaining that Al Jazeera was founded by the emir of Qatar in 1996 — the same year that nation unveiled the Al Udeid Air Base, which, he says, is the largest airfield in the Middle East and a key asset for the U.S. military.
He goes a bit weak in the knees discussing the emir, whose network, he insists, has turned the Middle East on its head.
There was, for instance, the talk-show appearance by the Syrian-born, L.A.-based psychiatrist Wafa Sultan, who “said things no Arab woman had said before on an Arab network,'’ including a denunciation of “the cultures of violence and barbarity'’ created by Middle East radicals.
More Access
He dismisses charges that Al Jazeera is in league with bin Laden, arguing that the network received tapes from the world’s most-wanted terrorist “for the same reason the New York Times received the Unabomber’s manifesto: The originators look for access to a large audience through a credible source.'’
Rushing believes U.S. officials should follow the Israelis’ lead and provide access to Al Jazeera correspondents, even if the U.S., like Israel, takes a licking in news stories. Israel, he explains, realizes the value of addressing the Al Jazeera audience; we should, too.
So how’s he doing in his new life? Rushing puts a positive spin on things, saying he will have spoken at West Point seven times by the book’s publication date. One general, he writes, promised to incorporate his suggestions on media relations into basic training.
Whether Al Jazeera English will appear “fair and balanced'’ enough to attract a significant audience remains to be seen. Many readers may nonetheless conclude that Rushing was a cagey hire.
