William Schulz’s article, “Will Alhurra Cover-Up Probe Lead to Karen Hughes?” (see HUMAN EVENTS July 2 cover), contains serious misrepresentations of the facts, which I would like to correct for the record.
It was not Ken Tomlinson who first raised concerns about Alhurra. The State Department’s Rapid Response Unit, which was created by Under Secretary Karen Hughes to monitor Arab and other world media to provide policy makers with a sense of what is in the news and how to respond, first noticed that Alhurra was broadcasting a live speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Hasrallah. When I was first informed about this, I relayed our concerns directly to Alhurra’s management.
The Broadcasting Board of Governors - Republicans and Democrats alike - have discussed this issue numerous times during the past several months, with a view toward fixing the problem and preventing a recurrence. As Under Secretary Hughes has noted in formal testimony, this event and the others mentioned in Schulz’s article were mistakes and violations of Alhurra’s editorial policies, which the board and Alhurra’s management have also clearly and publicly acknowledged. In response, Alhurra management has reissued its journalistic policy, strengthened its editorial controls and provided increased training to its journalists.
Despite these lapses, we believe that, overall, Alhurra is improving its coverage of American policy and values and moving in the right direction. Coverage of events related to U.S. foreign policy, American society and values has increased dramatically over the past several months, and the network is broadcasting a number of innovative programs to serve as a platform for dialogue between and among Americans and Arab publics, a niche that is nowhere else to be found on Arab television. For example, on June 28, Alhurra broadcast a town hall meeting at George Washington University featuring Palestinian-Americans offering different perspectives on the current Palestinian situation. Alhurra has also taken on the task of promoting democracy with its audiences, it did an outstanding job of covering recent elections in Mauritania and Egypt and it recently added a second congressional correspondent to cover the policy debate occurring in our own national legislature. Increasingly, we hear from contacts in the Arab world and elsewhere that this kind of coverage resonates with Alhurra’s audiences, and as a result, it is gaining traction and broadening its reach.
Schulz’s article failed to mention that, since June 8, the Broadcasting Board of Governors has had a new chairman, James K. Glassman, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute whose articles have been published in HUMAN EVENTS. With this fresh start, the BBG has been working to ensure that Alhurra does the best job possible of transmitting the values of freedom and democracy to the Arab world.
- M.E. “Bud” Jacobs
Sr. Advisor for Broadcasting
Office of the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Department of State, Washington, D.C.
William Schulz Responds to the State Department
Mr. Jacobs asserts that he reported concerns over the live broadcast of Hezbollah’s terrorist leader “directly to Alhurra’s management.” That was the problem - as former BBG Chairman Ken Tomlinson and journalist Joel Mowbray have made clear.
It was this new editorial management (i.e., news director Larry Register) that ultimately had been responsible for the terrorist broadcast in question. This same management was responsible for Alhurra’s reporting of the Tehran holocaust deniers conference as if it were a legitimate event. It was this same management that blessed the U.S. broadcast of an al Qaeda operative’s declaring that 9/11 brought him joy because it “rubbed America’s nose in the dust.” And it was this same management that was perpetuating a cover-up of what had occurred at Alhurra.
Despite Mowbray’s exposés in the Wall Street Journal of these journalistic atrocities, Jacob’s boss, Under Secretary of State Karen Hughes, continued to express confidence in this management - joining BBG Democrats in blocking Tomlinson’s call for an investigation. Faced as late as April with skeptical questions from Congress, based on Tomlinson’s concerns and Mowbray’s reporting, Hughes declared: “I want to say that I have heard rave reviews of Larry Register from people across the Middle East about his knowledge. We just had Joaquin Blaya, who is one of my colleagues on the BBG, travel to the Middle East and again heard very high praise.”
That is why for nearly six months the situation at Alhurra was not addressed.
Fortunately, new BBG Chairman James Glassman recognized Alhurra editorial management for what it was. Register, according to reliable reports, was forced to resign.
But why did it take six months for the BBG to face up to this mess?
Just as Mr. Jacobs fails to substantiate his charge of “serious misrepresentations of the facts,” he refuses to address the responsibility of Register and the Alhurra management and the attempted cover-up of Alhurra’s actions that were the point of my article.
It took a congressional hearing to unmask the crisis in Alhurra management. Mr. Jacob’s response lends support to the view that it will take another congressional hearing to unmask the cover-up.
- William Schulz
Washington, D.C.
