The Bush administration may be able to influence US media coverage of Bush's War on Iraq, but it is not going to be able to control what the rest of the world sees. It isn't the 1990's any more, and the days of CNN as the only worldwide news network are long gone. According to an article today in the Guardian, 4 million people in Europe signed up to subscribe to the al-Jazeera network in the last week, adding to the 35 million Arabic-speaking viewers it already had. According to the article, al-Jazeera is planning an English speaking channel. The dominant image over the last week? "The head of a child aged about 12 that had been split apart, reportedly in the US-led assault on Basra." That may help teach people to fear the U.S., but it isn't going to do a lot toward winning anybody's heart or mind. Expect to see the CIA help launch a competing Arabic news network in the near future.
Posted by Geodog at March 26, 2003 12:56 AM | TrackBackMy apologies, but my web hoster has turned off commenting, due to a flood of obscene spam bringing the server to its knees. I hope to have this weblog transitioned over to Wordpress in the near future, so that I can have commenting up and working again. Until then, please feel free to send me your comments via my email contact form.. Please ignore everything below this comment.