Sponsorship of Shoe Debate on Hariri TV

Amer wrote this for Iraqslogger: "As with most Arab satellite channels, Future TV (founded by the Lebanese Hariri family, an ally of Saudi Arabia) devoted its prime time talk shows last week to the Montazir al-Zaidi affair. The popular talk show host Zaven, however, had a lead over the competition: an exclusive interview with al-Zaidi himself. As it later turned out, the heavily advertized interview was conducted between Zaven and al-Zaidi (as well as a dozen other Iraqi journalists) before the shoe-throwing incident, and al-Zaidi’s comments lasted a little over two minutes. The lackluster episode, however, gained much attention due to another reason: the show’s promotional clips pompously advertized: “this show is sponsored by …. The CIA.” The Lebanese al-Akhbar newspaper revealed the matter in a front-page story on Wednesday, affirming that the CIA “sponsorship” promo was displayed to Future TV viewers in North America. The affair may prove embarrassing and even scandalous to Future TV and its pro-Saudi backers – already accused of being “American tools” by their adversaries. The matter also opens up a thorny debate in Arab journalism regarding the deep involvement of state financing – both local and foreign - in the media of the region (imagine – for the sake of comparison - an American TV channel airing political programs sponsored by Chinese, Russian or Iranian security agencies.) The last time an Arab media figure was publicly “outed” as a recipient of CIA funding was in the 1960s, when the Hiwar literary journal, edited by Palestinian intellectual Tawfeeq Sayigh, was wrapped in a major scandal: the magazine was secretly receiving CIA funds through front organizations set up by the American intelligence agency to support pro-American publications around the world. The journal was shut down and Sayigh – now publicly shunned - died shortly thereafter. This time around, financing by foreign governments is apparent in journalistic institutions throughout the Middle East. For all the talk of the freedom of press and the independence of the media in the Middle East and the “New Iraq,” facts on the ground are more amenable to conspiracy theories with governments (foreign and local) and intelligence agencies pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the Arab media every year. The US government owns and funds several media outlets targeting Arab audiences, and US officials openly speak of hundreds of millions of dollars spent for “PR” purposes yearly. One of the observable effects of this funding is in the immense amount of US-financed political ads that drown pan-Arab channels like al-`Arabiya and New TV – not to mention local Iraqi papers and TVs. Most of that advertisement (smartly displayed on both, pro-American and anti-American channels) targets the Iraqi public and usually carries “soft” pro-government and patriotic messages (“do not believe terrorists who call themselves resistants,” “support the police and Army” etc…) But even these ads attempted to keep a distance between their message and the US government. The first reaction of Future Television, through the chair of its board, was to stress that the CIA “sponsorship” of Zaven’s talk show is – in effect – an ordinary paid ad, and that the purposes of the Central Intelligence Agency are “merely” to recruit from among the viewers."