ProPublica Starts With A Bang

I know that in journalism you’re supposed to view the competition as the enemy, but that seems like a foolish relic of old-media. We all benefit from better journalism. So let me welcome into this wide world our partners in nonprofit substantive journalism, ProPublica, who kicks things off with this great Dafna Linzer piece about the joke that is al-Hurra, the Bush administration’s effort at Arabic-language propaganda.

…Alhurra’s four years of operation have been marked by a string of broadcast disasters that government officials believe are as negative as anything aired by Al Jazeera, the widely watched Qatar-based station that aired unedited speeches of Osama bin Laden.

Alhurra’s reporters and commentators operate with little oversight. Alhurra’s president, Brian Conniff, does not speak Arabic and is unable to understand anything broadcast on the radio and television networks he is paid to manage. Conniff has no journalism experience and worked previously as a government auditor. His news director, Daniel Nassif, grew up in Lebanon and has no background in television. Before coming to the network, he helped promote the political aspirations in Washington of a Lebanese Christian former general.

Dear ProPublica, welcome to The Game. Love, The Washington Independent.