November 14, 2001

Dear Mr. Conan,

Your Talk of the Nation segment on Al-Jazeera on November 13, with Fouad Ajami was incredibly one-sided and filled with inaccuracies and outright falsehoods. Mr. Ajami has his agenda and his views which he is perfectly entitled to express on your program, but his view of Al-Jazeera should not be presented as the definitive interpretation of "What the Muslim World is watching."

There are many people in this country who defended Al-Jazeera against just such unfair attacks as Mr. Ajami's including myself and Hussein Ibish of the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee who co-wrote a piece about it for the Los Angeles Times on October 22. Any one of us could have provided an alternative view.

I have also produced summaries and translations of some of Al-Jazeera's coverage, which I have monitored very closely, and as a close watcher of the media I would dispute almost every assertion Mr. Ajami made. Mr. Ajami provided no evidence for his assertions but simply made ad hominem attacks on Al-Jazeera's reporters saying without any basis that they are "pan Arabists and Islamists" as if holding a specific set of political views precludes one from being a professional. He also said that "incitement" was the "trademark" of Al-Jazeera. This is absolute poisonous rubbish. But the point is that you should have presented another view of Al-Jazeera including perhaps someone from its bureau or from its head office in Qatar who could have answered the unfair charges that Mr. Ajami made.

I know that they are quite willing to participate in such programs, as I participated in a radio program with Al-Jazeera's head of news this very morning.

What Al-Jazeera has successfully done, and what so many people are loath to acknowledge, is to shatter the myth that Arab or Muslim opinion is monolithic. By presenting only one view of Al-Jazeera, and a very hostile and embittered one at that, you seem to be doing your best to restore that idea.

For months Al-Jazeera's correspondent Taysir Allouni risked his life to bring images out of Kabul that US networks relied on. Yesterday he fled for his life as US bombs destroyed his home and bureau and had to hide simply because as an Arab he could have been summarily executed by the Northern Alliance. A journalist and an organization who have been through so much deserve at the very least fair treatment from NPR. They got exactly the opposite.

Yours,

Ali Abunimah
http://www.abunimah.org

REPLY FROM NEAL CONAN:

November 14, 2001

As always, thanks for your interest and concern.

The segment originated with an invitation to the head of Al Jazeera's Washington office, who's been on the show before. He explained that he was too busy and tried to arrange for us to speak with one of his correspondents, who, it turned out, was also too busy. We booked Professor Adjami after learning of his forthcoming article in the New York Times Magazine.

This was not our first segment on Al Jazeera; I don't expect it to be the last. I did not know that you monitored it so closely. I know that no such service (certainly not NPR) is above criticism and look forward to vigorous discussions in the future.

I spoke earlier today with Mr. Ibish; as you did, he offered to serve as a resource. As we are constantly looking for ways to expand our sources of information and opinion, I expect to take him up on it.

Neal Conan

Posted with permission