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When Images Compete as Fiercely as Armies (washingtonpost.com)]
Some intersting quotes in this article
This time, Rami G. Khouri, executive editor of the Daily Star in Beirut, Lebanon, notes, there are 20 Arab and American television networks in the battlefield.
"With a few notable exceptions that confirm the rule," Khouri wrote, "both [Arab and American networks] broadly provide a distorted incomplete picture of events while accurately reflecting emotional and political sentiments on both sides."
"There is also the Hezbollah-run al-Manar, based in Lebanon, which doesn't even try for objectiveness," Belden added. "Whereas al-Jazeera's tag line for war coverage is the neutral 'War in Iraq,' al-Manar's is the fiery 'War of American Aggression'."
"Apparently, the American government has forgotten that freedom of press is a double-edged sword that can be as dangerous for the big democratic powers as it is for dictatorial regimes," Ghafuri concluded, according to a translation from the Foreign Broadcast Information Service.
In "a military campaign in which images compete as fiercely as armies," noted Roula Khalaf in Wednesday's edition of the Financial Times, "pictures of Iraqis welcoming the U.S. as a liberator have yet to be seen. The images, expected and indeed promised by the U.S. and U.K., are desperately needed in part to help appease international public opinion."
Khouri's conclusion in the Daily Star: "If you're getting your news and views from either Arab or American television, it is now very clear: You're getting only half the story."