tives. While CNN’s field correspondents covered the war through an American perspective stressing the narratives of ‘liberating Iraq from Saddam’s tyranny’, Al Jazeera was talking about a ‘U.S. invasion of Iraq’. As Al Jazeera’s coverage focused on images of injured civilians, particularly women and children, and the destruction of civilian neigh- bourhoods in Baghdad, which was absent in the CNN coverage. Al Ja- zeera’s narrative gained worldwide fame and credibility. When Al Ja- zeera aired U.S. captives in the hands of Iraqi forces, American officials were taken by surprise, resulting in a major shift after CNN started to air Al Jazeera’s images and news. This is how Al Jazeera managed to put an end to the U.S. monopoly of news reporting and defeated its nar- rative of the war on Iraq. But when it came to the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks and President Bush’s so-called war on terror, Al Jazeera faced a different type of opposition from American officials. The only plausible explanation for this development was Al Jazeera’s different perspective and coverage of the conflict. By the time U.S. forces had bombed Al Jazeera’s bureau in Kabul, a new equation had emerged. Al Jazeera had defied U.S. officials and institutions in its coverage and even exposed neoconservative policies in the Arab and Muslim World. Al Jazeera’s coverage of the U.S. war in Afghanistan and the so-called war on terror took relations between the two sides to a new level. It was no longer a conflict between two media narratives. It bec a me a conflict between a Western superpower and an Arab media network. In this regard, Al Jazeera’s coverage of major issues of interest to the Arab audience managed, within its first five years, to accomplish three missions: - Familiarizing the Arab audience with an Arab media voice that is interested in building an Arab narrative when covering issues of interest to such a large audience. This is how and why Al Jazeera emerged suc- cessful in terms of covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and, more importantly, won the hearts and minds of Arab viewers (1) . - Live coverage of events has become the first option when re- porting the news. It is the true test and means of winning the minds
(1) El-Nawawy and Iskandar, Al Jazeera, pp. 45-46.
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