The Saddam Channel debuted on Friday, the first day of this year’s Eid for Sunnis. The holiday started Saturday for Shiites. The station’s official name alternates between “Al-Lafeta” (“the banner”) and “Al-Arabi” (“the Arab”).It is mostly a montage of flattering, still images of Saddam – some of him dressed in military uniform, others in a suit, even one astride a white horse. One image shows his sons Odai and Qusai smiling with their father, and another their bodies after they and Saddam’s grandson, Mustafa, were killed in a July 2003 gunfight with U.S. troops.
[...]All the pictures are set against audio recordings of Saddam making speeches and reciting poetry. Patriotic songs urge listeners to “liberate our country.” None of the pictures appear to be recent, and no announcers or commentators appear or speak.
The story is a rare window on the bizarre world of Arab satellite television. I first became aware of it in the language school, when our teachers assigned several boring passages about the history of ARABSAT. It was only with the rise of Al Jazeera that Americans first became aware this “wild west” of Middle Eastern media even existed, but meanwhile it’s had profound effects on the culture.
Saddam’s propaganda outfit looked like a local cable-access operation compared to the network out of Qatar; in fact, the entire gamut of Arab government channels looked like amateur hour. We’re not just talking about snappy graphics, either: Al Jazeera went where no one else dared, calling out cronyism and bad governance across the region. It was unheard-of.
Today, Al Jazeera still isn’t quite what it was. In part, that is thanks to the Bush administration, which put heavy pressure on the Emir of Qatar to reign in his station. But given the current state of programming available to Iraqis, I’d imagine they’re laughing themselves silly at the Saddam Channel.
