ST. PAUL — There is no Arabic word for “maverick.”
When you work for Al Jazeera, that alone makes it kind of tough to report on John McCain’s presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention. The network, said Abderrahim Foukara, the station’s Washington bureau chief, had to find a way to describe McCain’s reputation “without giving people the impression that he is a breakaway wing of the Republican Party.”
The solution: In Arabic, Al Jazeera says McCain is known as “a bird that sings outside the flock.”
Such are the challenges when reporting about America for Al Jazeera, the worldwide Arabic TV operation that has been beset by accusations of anti-American bias. As The Washington Post‘s Dana Milbank wrote in a story last week:
Al-Jazeera, like Fox News, bills itself as a straight-news outlet, but others, including the Bush administration, accuse it of an anti-American bias; it also seems to have first dibs on all of Osama bin Laden’s videotapes when al-Qaeda chooses to release them.
Milbank’s story was about the protests that sprang up in Golden, Colo., when the network’s English-language station set up an event to interview people about their reactions to Sen. Barack Obama’s speech last week.
Al Jazeera has covered the conventions in Denver and St. Paul with two separate news operations at each, the main Arabic-language station and its two-year-old English-language station. (The English-language station got some attention a couple of years ago when veteran correspondent David Marash became its anchor in Washington, D.C., but he later quit.)The two stations are covering the conventions a bit differently. The Arabic station is taking a network approach with about four hours a day of live coverage and a string of guests and commentators. Al Jazeera English also has booked guests, but News Editor Paul Werdel said correspondents have been trying to report outside the convention, such as by interviewing voters and reporting on protests.
Each station has about 35 people covering the conventions. They have contracted with different networks to provide communications equipment and support (NBC for the English-language station and ABC for the Arabic). Television and radio stations have signs in the arena marking their skybox studios. The sign for Al Jazeera is near The Associated Press and next to NBC.
In the midst of news and analysis, both stations must educate its viewers — 120 million households for the English station, 50 million households for the Arabic — on the unfamiliar American political system. For instance, the Arabic station gave its viewers a political history lesson in explaining the Democrats’ system of delegates and superdelegates.
“People’s interest in the election is just as intense in the world outside the U.S. as it is within the U.S.,” according to Werdel. He said that’s because the effects of the election will ripple around the world. “The refrain we often hear is, ‘I wish I could vote in the American election.’ “
Al Jazeera (Arabic) has two goals for its convention coverage: to convey what the conventions are like — the atmosphere, flavor and logistics — to people unfamiliar with it and to report on the content. Foukara said its coverage Monday, for instance, was pretty similar to other networks, but Al Jazeera made explicit the connections between Gustav and Katrina. The station brought four Arab-American commentators, two Republicans and two Democrats.
Foukara said the Arabic station pays special attention to foreign policy and energy issues (such as drilling for oil in Alaska) in the election because they could directly affect oil sales and forecast what could happen in Iraq, Iran, Israel and Palestine.
Their audience wants to know how Obama’s foreign policies would differ from the Bush administration, he said. Likewise, “what happens if John McCain wins is the big question on the minds of everyone in the Middle East.”
Werdel said Al Jazeera English has tried to get beyond the speechifying inside the convention hall. “If you tell the story (of the conventions) through the eyes of regular people, everybody around the world can relate to that,” he said.
In addition to the voter panel convened in Colorado, Al Jazeera had planned a similar event in Minnesota for McCain’s speech. That fell through when reporters had to go to New Orleans to cover Hurricane Gustav. So the Republican panel is taking place down there.
Republican guests on the Arabic station include U.S. Rep. and former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Among the Republicans who have appeared on the English-language station this week are former Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi and Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, said Hebah Abdalla, senior interview producer for the English channel. No one from either the Obama or McCain campaigns has appeared.
Employees of the English operation said they have encountered some resistance among potential guests. “It’s tough, but we still get people. Some people just won’t come on,” Abdalla said.
Werdel says accusations of bias against his station are undeserved. “I think anybody that has ever spent any time watching our channel, Al Jazeera English, has found it to be nothing more than a broad-based, internationally-oriented, straightforward, aggressive news channel.”
Worldwide, people “may speak different languages,” Werdel said, “but I think everyone is fundamentally concerned about the same things.”
