One month into America's New War -- as CNN calls it -- many Americans are still scratching their heads over the apparent cultural gap between the Arab world and the Western world. Every day, there are pictures of Muslims calling for America's destruction, and accusing the West of trying to wipe out Islam.
One reason for such deep-rooted anti-Americanism, some Middle East experts say, is that the Arabic media is fraught with biases and inaccuracies about the West. The media in the region paint America and Israel as the source of all evil, fomenting demonstrations -- and maybe even terror.
MSNBC wants to change some of that. In an unprecedented move for an American news organization, the company has introduced an Arabic-language version of its website, to be offered in partnership with an Arabic site called Good News 4 Me.
The new site -- at gn4msnbc.com -- will feature a daily selection of MSNBC's news stories, in an effort, the company said, "to provide the real story." But will people go for it?
To get a glimpse of how the West is currently portrayed in the media in the Middle East, one need only read a few translations of stories appearing in the Arabic press -- provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute, an Arabic media watchdog group.
Here's an excerpt from the Egyptian daily Al-Usbu, in which Mustafa Bakri, an editor, describes his "dream" of assassinating Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister: "I pulled my gun and aimed it at the cowardly pig's head. I emptied all the bullets and screamed ... The murderer collapsed under my feet.... I stepped on the pig's head with my shoes and screamed from the bottom of my heart."
The Institute's site is brimming with such vitriol, most of it against Israel, but much of it aimed at the United States as well. And even the practices of Al Jazeera, the satellite news channel that is the most respected in the Arab world, have been called into question in recent days.
The station has a practice of labeling suicide bombers who attack Israel "martyrs," because -- according to a senior producer for the station, speaking on CNN -- "(they) are people who give themselves for a cause."
The producer added that "What happened in New York and Washington, we believe, was causeless," so "that is an act of terror."
And indeed, according to the old adage, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter -- so which will MSNBC favor when it enters this minefield of explosive terms?
"We're trusting there's not some anti-Semitic bias," said Michael Salata, the company's business development manager, referring to the translations provided by the Good News 4 Me. "We have a lot of faith in their coverage."
He said that unlike many outlets in the region, the MSNBC site will be free of government censorship, "which is one of the reasons we did it. There is a need for unbiased news in the region, and we hope to go beyond state-run media."
But would Arabs -- many of whom may genuinely believe that, say, Hamas is not a terrorist group -- take well to MSNBC's American view of things?
Salata said the people he's spoken to in the Arab world have told him "this is exactly what people in the region are looking for." The site -- which was actually developed before the Sept. 11 attacks -- would also go beyond giving people news about the war on terrorism.
"Certainly there's an interest in that region in American culture and business," Salata said, "as well as other stories in the living and travel sections."
He added, "We have the ability to bring our point of view (to the region)."
But asked to comment on the initiative, the director of the Middle East Media Research Institute had an assistant tell Wired News, "Call back in three weeks" -- expressing a bit of uncertainty about whether the venture would work that long.
The spokeswoman explained that it was too early to say whether an American news site could penetrate the Arabic market.
No other news agencies said they were looking to expand internationally. The British Broadcasting Company already features an Arabic news site.
Martin Nisenholtz, the CEO of New York Times Digital, said the paper has "considered over the years various translation options, but we've determined that at least at present, the cost of a full translation of The New York Times on the Web -- and the ongoing costs of making sure that that's consistently accurate and true -- are too high to justify."
He said, also, that to the extent he's considering translations, Arabic isn't one of the languages in the forefront.
