In an article today on the Arab media by Jonathan Curiel, we see this account from Asad Abukhalil: Asad Abukhalil, a political science professor at California State University Stanislaus, said the Arab media are no more biased than U.S. media. He said Al-Jazeera, with its range of talk shows and call-in segments, offers a more diverse range of discussion than its U.S. counterparts. "I think Al- Jazeera is far more restrained, far more serious and far more professional than CNN," said Abukhalil. "It's what CNN should be."
Next, in the same article, Jamal Dajani weighs in:Compared with Western media, Arab-language networks are more likely to show Iraqi civilians who are killed or maimed in Iraq -- described with language that U.S. officials would call provocative.
Jamal Dajani, the producer of WorldLink TV's "Mosaic," which rebroadcasts Arab news segments on satellite television stations in the Bay Area and other communities, said that sort of reporting is not surprising.
"Arab media are going to show the effects of the war, the devastation,'' he said. "On our networks here, we talk about 'coalition forces.' On Arab media, they talk about 'occupation forces.' On CNN (on Friday), they talked about '16 insurgents killed.' In the Arab world, they call them 'resistance fighters.' Those are little nuances. Someone is manipulating something on both sides."
Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and a hawk on defense issues, said in an interview that his concern is that the administration has not been including the war's costs in the Defense Department's regular budget, but instead has been seeking special supplemental appropriations, which it has asked for as late as possible to delay the public release of financial information on the war.
Worse, he said, by providing funding so late, the administration has placed further stress on the military itself, which is having to scramble and transfer money from other accounts to temporarily cover some war costs.
"Somehow, they have come to think that it's politically embarrassing that they need more money to pay for this war," Weldon said of President Bush and his aides. "If they're doing this for political purposes, I think it's stupid. It's shortsighted."
Weldon said he is a staunch supporter of the war and the occupation, but he insisted that the White House's approach of paying for the war by running budget deficits rather than slashing other programs -- including those to modernize the military by making it more mobile -- will have to end.
