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American Morning

Is U.S. Fighting Back in Propaganda War?

Aired April 18, 2002 - 09:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Our big question this hour: Is the U.S. fighting back in the propaganda war in attempt to counter what they say is Al Jazeera's clout in the Arab world? The Voice America is launching just this week a new Middle East radio network. One of the driving forces behind it is Norm Pattiz, Founder of the Westwood One Radio Network and the Member of the Presidents Broadcasting Board of Governors and he joins us now and a very early morning, indeed, from Los Angeles. Good morning. Nice of you to join us this morning.

NORM PATTIZ, FOUNDER, WESTWOOD ONE RADIO: Thank you.

ZAHN: Explain to us why you are launching this broadcast now.

PATTIZ: Well when I joined the Broadcasting Board of Governors about a year and a half ago, in going over a lot of the language priorities around the world, we broadcast in 65 languages around the world, I took particular note of the fact that our entire commitment to the Middle East was seven hours a day of Arab language programming, broadcast in one size fits all approach to the entire region and distributed over short wave which nobody listens to and a very weak medium wave signal out of roads.

So well before 9/11, probably a year ago last January, I reported these findings back to the board and they said congratulations Norm, you're now the Chairman of the Middle East Subcommittee. Go fix it. So we went to the region and have been back to the region on many occasions.

And among the things that we found is that there's very clearly a media war going on in the region. And the weapons of that war would be incitement to violence, disinformation, hate radio, government censorship and journalistic self-censorship. And the United States of America does not have a horse in this race. So when the President of the United States said last October, after the events of 9/11, why do they hate us? I think one of the reasons that they hate us is because they really don't know us. And the only view that they're getting of the United States of America and of the citizens of the United States are the views from their own government-controlled media, which are not accurate by the standards that any American would look at.

ZAHN: Norm, I think you made it very clear how daunting a challenge you have ahead. How many - how many listeners are you going to have from the outset and what will the content of these broadcasts be? PATTIZ: Well we're beginning, as a matter of fact as you mentioned, we just begun, within the last few weeks; we're now on four FM stations. We're in Ayman (ph), Jordan. We're in Kuwait. We're in Abudabi (ph) and Jubi (ph). We start shortly in Birane (ph) and Cotar (ph). We're also on three satellite systems, which cover the entire region, digital audio satellite systems, very similar to DirecTV with audio channels. So we'll be on Nialesat (ph), Arabsat (ph) and Utulsat (ph). And within the next few weeks, we'll be beaming into the area from outside the area with powerful AM transmitters from Jubutti (ph) and Cypress (ph) and also from Kuwait.

We think we can have significant impact. We're targeting our service at 25 and under audience, which represents between 60 and 70 percent of the total population of the region, depending upon which part of region that you're looking at. And we're going to utilize sophisticated Western Broadcast techniques to attract a large audience 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So we think that we can have a big impact.

ZAHN: Yeah, let me ask you this. Obviously, we've been covering this so closely here, there has never been as much anti-American sentiment as we are seeing today in a bunch of different Arab countries. Why is it that this particular group, these young 25 and under listeners that you're targeting, will not view these broadcasts as anything else but pro-American propaganda?

PATTIZ: Well they may very well view it exactly that way. I think that they'll be attracted to our broadcast for a number of reasons. First they'll be attracted to our broadcast out of I think a large portion out of curiosity because they will be broadcasts that will be coming from the United States of the America and we will be very transparent about the fact that this is service that is supported by the taxpayers of the United States of America.

They'll also be attracted to our broadcast because we will use, as I said before, sophisticated broadcasting techniques, music, entertainment, features and so forth that are designed to attract an audience and to attract an Arab audience. This will be a heavily researched proposition. And we believe we can, you know, attract a significant audience.

Now, as far as our news and our public affairs mission and so forth, we're simply going to have to walk the walk. It's going to take time but I think it's clear from our research that the Arab public does not believe a lot of the information that they get from their own government services.

ZAHN: Norm Pattiz, thank you for outlining the challenge ahead. We'd love to have you come back on perhaps maybe with a couple of your new Arab listeners to hear their take on how different some of this coverage is.

PATTIZ: It would be my pleasure.

ZAHN: So when you find two of those listeners for us on your next trip, we'd love to have all of you come back and that with us. PATTIZ: Thank you. I hope I find more than two.

ZAHN: Well I know. I know it's going to be a success. You're going to need a lot more than that.

PATTIZ: Thank you.

ZAHN: I know you're setting your hopes very high. Thank you Norm Pattiz. Thanks.

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