Gigot: Welcome to "The Journal Editorial Report." I'm Paul Gigot.
When it launched in 2004, the U.S.-taxpayer-funded Al-Hurra satellite network was to be a voice of moderation in the Arab world. But under new leadership, the channel, seen in 22 countries across the Middle East, has taken a decidedly radical turn, airing puff pieces on Holocaust deniers and speeches by known Islamic terrorists. Journalist Joel Mowbray has led the pack on this story, and he joins me now in the studio with more.
Joel Mowbray, welcome.
Mowbray: Thank you.
Gigot: You say Al-Hurra is not fulfilling its moderate mission in the Middle East. Give our audience some examples of what it is broadcasting.
Mowbray: Well, it's not even so much a moderate mission as a truth and information mission, right? We are the ones that are supposed to be counteracting the propaganda that is rampant in the Arab world. Instead, though, we are putting on things like interviews with al Qaeda operatives, such as Mohammad Hanji, who's in Bahrain, where on Nov. 26 of last year, we interviewed him, and he said that 9/11 brought him great joy because it rubbed America's nose in the dust.
A week and a half later, they put on a speech by Hassan Nasrallah, the held of Hezbollah, and by the five-minute mark in the speech, by the way, Nasrallah was saying to the people firing the guns in the air in celebration, "Don't fire your guns. Don't waste your bullets. Save them for where they belong, the chest of the enemy, the Israeli enemy."
Gigot: Tell us about coverage by the network of the Holocaust denial conference in Tehran. They covered that?
Mowbray: Yeah, they did. It was--it was actually astounding. I just got hold of the transcript about a week ago.
We all remember Ahmadinejad hosting this conference in Tehran with all these famous Holocaust deniers and Dave Duke. And Al-Hurra was there to cover it, but shouldn't have covered it the way they did, because they did basically, as you said, a puff piece. They went out and said, "Well, here is what David Duke had to say about his praise for Ahmadinejad." And then they said, "Here is what the French historian says, that there's no evidence there were gas chambers used in the Holocaust."
There was no rebuttal. There's no independent debunking. These guys were put on almost like an infomercial.
Gigot: But look, some people would say, if you are supposed to cover the truth in the Middle East, these are authentic Middle East voices. Why would you want to close them off from a network like this? What's your response to that?
Mowbray: Well, those are the guys who have every other network available to them. We're not just trying to be another Arab network; we are trying to be the truth and information network. That's the reason I say, it's not even a moderate voice. You know, is controversial in America to deny the Holocaust. In the Arab world, it is controversial to suggest the Holocaust happened. OK, that's how different it is. We are there to combat that.
