Al-Manar and Alhurra: Competing Satellite Stations and Ideologies

• Main Author: Baylouny, Anne Marie
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Subjects: ANTIAMERICANISM; ARABIC LANGUAGE; ARABS; AUDIENCE; CONTENT; COVERAGE; CULTURE; HIZBULLAH; Humanities and History; IDEOLOGY; LEBANON; MEDIA; PROPAGANDA; SATELLITE TELEVISION; TELEVISION BROADCASTING; TELEVISION STATIONS; TERRORISTS; Unconventional Warfare; UNITED STATES; VIEWERSHIP

The current US administration has identified the Lebanese Islamist group Hizbullah as a key threat and the group's media a source of increasing anti-Americanism. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld blamed al-Jazeera, the leading Arabic language news station, for encouraging Islamism by broadcasting beheadings of hostages in Iraq, a charge the station denies. In President George Bush's State of the Union address in 2004, he focused on Arab television stations he claimed are responsible for hateful propaganda against the US. The stations distort news and show explicit images producing anti-Americanism. Al-Manar, a satellite television service launched by the Lebanese Hizbullah, is one of those stations. The US maintains that al-Manar is anti-Semitic and promotes hatred, and lists Hizbullah as a terrorist group. To counter what is viewed as the promotion of anti-Americanism, hate and terrorism, the administration banned al-Manar from American airwaves in December 2004, though legally, the basis for banning the television station was due to its role in aiding Hizbullah, not its messages. The US launched its own television station, Alhurra, to compete with messages from Arab media outlets in general. Are these efforts likely to succeed, winning the hearts and minds of Arab and Muslim TV watchers? To answer this question, an analysis of Hizbullah's appeal is necessary. What messages is the station actually carrying, and with which constituencies do they resonate? How does banning the station affect their credibility? I analyze al-Manar's ideology and link it to its bases of support. I then examine the American actions to counter this ideological influence, and how those attempts are received in the Arab world. In contrast to previous reports of al-Manar's broadcasts, my study did not find overt support for suicide bombings or attacks on Americans or Israelis. Most coverage was comparable to other stations. ISSN 1863-6039.