Satellite TV after the Iraq War (page 3 of 3)

Al Jazeera simply allowed the pictures to run, in all their horror, for many minutes without commentary.

Above all, Fox personnel were required to be as 100 percent loyal to the war aims as they were to the American flag. When Al Jazeera showed the bodies of American servicemen and US prisoners of war in Iraqi hands, the station's defense correspondent, live on air in Washington, could barely contain his anger. Correspondents of the Arab station by contrast have remained detached in their presentation of the carnage that followed heavy bombing in Baghdad and Basra, with more emphasis on the visual image than on any accompanying comment.

While Al Jazeera, in the period after the start of war, interviewed senior US officials as much as it did Iraqi ones, Fox seemed unable to accommodate the Arab point of view - whether government or public. And there was never talk of "American forces" in action in Iraq; it was always "our forces."

No matter how events unfold in the coming days, the likelihood is that Al Jazeera and Fox will continue to view the conflict through completely different lenses. While the former will keep up its 24-hour coverage, as seen from the streets of Baghdad and elsewhere for as long as it is able, the latter will concentrate on America's ultimate goal, while playing down the setbacks and human suffering involved in reaching it.

By doing so it risks presenting war almost as another form of entertainment. In the words of retired Colonel Bob McGuiness, one of the many military analysts hired by Fox, "Our news coverage gives a real sense of what it's like to be there - this is better than anything you would see on a video game. It's unique."

For Arab viewers, the vivid memories of the war - when it is completely over - are likely to be the images of the civilian casualties in Baghdad and elsewhere - and of the live broadcasts by Arab correspondents from Al Jazeera, Abu Dhabi and Al Arabiya who remained on air while the capital was pounded from afar.

The war in Iraq will be remembered, in short, as the conflict in which Arab satellite news channels came of age, both in the debate before hostilities began and in the way that they covered the fighting and the ensuing human suffering. One thing is very clear: for the Arab television viewer, the era of CNN, Fox News and the BBC is dead and buried.