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Al-Jazeera: The Inside Story of the Arab News Channel that Is Challenging the West. By Hugh Miles. New York: Grove Press, 2005. 438 pages. $24.
The persistent, jabbing journalism of Al-Jazeera has made the Qatar-based news channel a significant factor in Middle East policymaking. Although Al-Jazeera's objectivity deserves challenge (as is the case with many news organizations), its credibility in the Arab world is what really matters.
British journalist Hugh Miles presents a wide-ranging-if at times overly admiring-examination of the technique and impact of this journalistic phenomenon. In a region where almost all television news had been state-controlled and dull, Al-Jazeera has at the very least enlivened politics and journalism since it began broadcasting in 1996. It is news for Arabs, provided by Arabs, and broadcast from an Arab country, which means a lot to an audience that has grown increasingly suspicious of Western-based newscasts from the likes of CNN and the BBC.
Nevertheless, Al-Jazeera's product has been strongly influenced by American television. Al-Jazeera shows such as "The Opposite Direction" feature the same silly bombast as can be found on "Crossfire" and other intellectual food-fights, and the newscasts are slick and fast-paced. Al-Jazeera, writes Miles, also embraces the kind of freedom that US news media enjoy, and the...