ProPublica: Media & Technology

Senate Panel Seeks to Reinstate Voice of America Cuts

2008-07-24T14:35:00-05:00

by Paul Kiel

Earlier this month, we reported that the Voice of America (VOA) was planning to cut seven radio language services. The cuts came partly as a result of the administration's emphasis on broadcasting to the Muslim world. ProPublica has published two reports on turmoil and waste at Alhurra, the U.S. government-funded Arabic television news channel.

Now the Senate panel that oversees its funding has recommended reinstating funding for the affected services -- though the move seems unlikely to prevent the cuts. (Gridlock in Congress has delayed action on most, if not all, spending bills for 2009 until the next administration.) The committee also suggests trimming $8.4 million from the administration's $112.4 million budget request for the Middle East Broadcast Networks, the parent company to Alhurra.

The cuts are planned to take effect Sept. 30. David Carle, a spokesman for Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that oversees funding for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, said that "the committee does not support zeroing out these programs," but that its spending bill "will not become law for some time yet."

The committee specifically raised concern about VOA's plans to cut its radio and TV services to Russia, "where freedom of speech remains restricted and broadcasting is still necessary." The VOA also plans to cut radio broadcasts in Ukrainian, Serbian, Hindi, Macedonian, Bosnian and Georgian.

Tim Shamble, the union representative for VOA employees, said that it would be "very difficult" to get the services up and running again after being shut down. "If you're off the air for any period of time, you lose your audience."

Letter From Alhurra’s Parent Company—And Our Response

2008-07-22T11:59:00-05:00

by Eric Umansky

The Middle East Broadcasting Network, parent company to Alhurra, has sent us a response to our investigation of the U.S.-government funded Arabic channel. Here is their letter -- and our response.

Update: The complete 2004 cable from the U.S. diplomats in Cairo is now posted.

Update: Paper Responds to Alhurra Payment Story

2008-07-21T15:03:00-05:00

by Paul Kiel

A number of weeks ago, we published a story about payments made by Alhurra, the U.S. government-funded Arabic news channel, to guest commentators on the network. Among the paid commentators were Washington journalists, including Bill Sammon of the Washington Examiner. The story focused on the potential appearance of a conflict of interest for journalists accepting payments from a government-funded organization.

Neither Sammon, nor the Examiner, initially responded to our requests for comment. But as we note in an update to the story, the paper responded today with a comment from executive editor Stephen Smith: "we expect members of our staff to not accept remuneration for activities that would in any way compromise their work or even create an appearance of a conflict of interest.

"We've only had one case in which one of our reporters accepted an honorarium that we thought might create an appearance of a conflict and we immediately directed the reporter to not accept honoraria of that nature."

The paper did not identify the reporter.

Sammon received $2,000 in honoraria from Alhurra for two appearances. Three days before his first appearance, he published a brief interview with Alhurra employee Julie Zann.

Matthew Townsend contributed to this story.

Voice of America to Cut Language Services

2008-07-09T13:23:00-05:00

by Paul Kiel

The Voice of America plans to eliminate seven radio language services this year, reflecting the Bush administration's emphasis on outreach to the Muslim world. Among the cuts are the radio and TV broadcasts of the Russian service, along with radio broadcasts in Ukrainian, Serbian, Hindi, Macedonian, Bosnian and Georgian.

Critics blame the cuts on the hundreds of millions of dollars absorbed by Alhurra, the U.S. government-funded Arabic television news channel. ProPublica has published two reports on turmoil and waste at the network.

VOA employees have long been unhappy with the direction of the agency, which currently broadcasts in 45 languages.

More than a third of VOA employees, nearly 500, signed a petition in 2004 protesting the "dismantling" of the agency. The protest came after the creation of Alhurra and Radio Sawa, the Arab radio service that VOA employees say relies on popular music and entertainment at the expense of substantive news programming, VOA's hallmark. The services replaced VOA's Arabic programming, which cost no more than $7 million a year. That's far less than the "huge boondoggle" of Radio Sawa and Alhurra, said Tim Shamble, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 1812. Alhurra and Radio Sawa have received nearly $500 million in U.S. taxpayer dollars since 2004.

Tish King, a spokeswoman for Voice of America, said the language services cuts are the result of "painful decisions" that reflect a focus on "places where, based on research, we can be most effective."

The administration has been seeking cuts to various language services for years, only to be rebuffed by Congress. In 2006, the administration's proposed budget for the Broadcasting Board of Governors (the agency that oversees Alhurra and VOA) included reductions or eliminations in "non-war on terror related language services." When the 2007 budget proposed reductions to even more services, Congress stepped in and provided funding to prevent it.

Among the reductions sought that year were broadcasts in Tibetan by VOA and Radio Free Asia, another U.S.-backed effort. A contingent of Tibetan monks visited Capitol Hill to lobby the House appropriations committee not to reduce the broadcasts, and ultimately the broadcasts were spared. In fact, VOA and Radio Free Asia increased their broadcasts this spring in light of unrest in the country, King said. She said the shift was just part of the "very dynamic" nature of international broadcasting.

"The fact that Tibet was originally scheduled to be reduced and is suddenly not on the chopping block is a good indication of why it's not a good idea to eliminate these languages," said Myrna Whitworth, a 28-year veteran and former acting director of VOA. "You never know when they'll be needed again. The idea of totally eliminating these services doesn't make any sense."

This time around, however, King said Congress is on board with the cuts, which will be effective in September. Matthew Dennis, a spokesman for Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the appropriations subcommittee that oversees funding for the BBG, cautioned that the appropriations process for VOA funds hasn't been finalized. He stressed that the agency's funding increased annually between 2006 and 2008, although the administration's proposed 2009 VOA budget is $185.6 million, about $10 million less than in 2008.

King said the cuts don't mean that U.S. broadcasts for the affected areas will disappear. For instance, she said, Radio Free Europe will continue to broadcast in Georgia, and VOA will continue TV programming in Hindi even though radio broadcasts will cease. Whitworth and other VOA veterans, however, argue that surrogates like Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia do not have the same journalistic standards as VOA. King said those services provide "balanced news and information."

Russia is a different animal. The Russian government's successful effort to squelch airing of VOA or Radio Free Europe material by radio or TV affiliates has made Russia "a really challenging market," King said. Given that VOA's shortwave radio service had such a small audience -- just two percent -- she said broadcasting by Internet was the best option for VOA.

Shamble, the union representative for VOA employees, said that eliminating the shortwave broadcasts was precisely the wrong move, since they reach the country with little danger of being blocked. Internet broadcasts are far more vulnerable, he said.

Update/Correction: This post originally described a reduction to seven language services. It has been changed to clearly indicate that it is VOA's radio services that are being cut. Also the post originally referred to cuts in the Tibetan services, which were only slated for reductions.

Alhurra’s Baghdad Bureau Mired in Controversy

2008-07-08T10:55:00-05:00

by Dafna Linzer

July 22: This post has been corrected.

When news broke in the spring of 2007 that the Iraqi government was holding talks with local militias, Alhurra, the U.S.-funded television station, was quick to respond. That night, Alhurra's premier talk show from Baghdad, "In Iraq," invited four guests to discuss the issue: a professor, an expert in tribal affairs, a member of a U.S.-backed coalition of tribal leaders and Mishan Jabouri, whom the show identified as a member of the Iraqi parliament.

What "In Iraq" didn't tell its viewers was that Jabouri, interviewed by phone from Syria, was on the run from the U.S. military and the Iraqi police. Interpol had issued a "Wanted" poster for him and Iraq's parliament had stripped him of his diplomatic immunity because of his suspected ties to extremists.

Officials at Alhurra, the Arab-language station that has received nearly $500 million in U.S. taxpayer dollars, say that of all their broadcasts to the Middle East, they are most proud of their broadcasts to Iraq. But a close look at both the content and personnel suggests the problems in the Baghdad bureau and the effort to broadcast programming for Iraqis are as profound as those that afflict the rest of the network.

For one thing, the bureau tilts heavily toward Iran, according to former employees, U.S. government officials and academics who have watched the programs. The executive producer of the Iraq broadcasts, a former bureau chief and several other employees all lived in Tehran before joining Alhurra. State Department officials and U.S. diplomats in Baghdad have privately complained for years that Alhurra's Iraq broadcasts seem more interested in promoting the policies of the radical Shiite regime in Iran rather than those of the United States government.

In addition, Alhurra's Iraq stream appears to have violated the network's own rules against putting terrorists on the air when Jabouri was invited on. Ironically, given the Baghdad bureau's Shia and Iranian leanings, Jabouri is a Sunni and is personally aligned with Sunni insurgents.

Deirdre Kline, spokeswoman for Alhurra, declined to respond to any questions about Alhurra's broadcasts to Iraq.

A self-made millionaire who was once close to Saddam Hussein, Jabouri is accused by the U.S. government and Interpol of financing attacks on Iraq's oil pipelines and providing support to Sunni insurgents and Al-Qaida in Iraq. In Syria he set up his own regional television network which airs images of attacks on U.S. troops. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, Jabouri offered to use his station to broadcast coded messages through patriotic songs to the Sunni terrorist group Islamic Army of Iraq. In January, the Treasury Department sanctioned both Jabouri and his television station. Under U.S. pressure, Egypt stopped carrying Jabouri's television channel earlier this year.

"He was treated as a normal guest, when he was a wanted man," said Hamid Alkifaey, a former Iraqi politician and journalist who was hired in 2007 to take over Alhurra's Iraq operation. Alkifaey said he was upset when he saw Jabouri on the "In Iraq" broadcast the week Alkifaey started work.

"It was no secret that he was a terrorist," Alkifaey said in a series of interviews.

On the show, Jabouri and the other guests argued about whether government-sponsored dialogue could bring an end to the sectarian violence in the country and who was to blame for the bloodshed. But according to a translation of the broadcast, all four agreed it would be better if the Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents devoted their energies to killing Americans, instead of one another.

As an example, Jabouri said he was disappointed that a truck bomb had recently passed by a U.S. military checkpoint only to attack Iraqi security forces nearby.

Alhurra, the U.S. government-funded satellite station, was set up in 2004 to win "hearts and minds" in the Middle East at a time of sinking U.S. popularity.

The network was the subject of a joint investigation by ProPublica and CBS' "60 Minutes" which aired last month. That report and continuing stories by ProPublica and others have uncovered serious staff problems, financial mismanagement and deep concerns inside the U.S. government about Alhurra's content.

The station airs three separate Arabic-language broadcasts aimed at different audiences: one broadcasts across the Middle East, one reaches Arab audiences in Europe and the third has the format of a local, 24-hour news station just for Iraq. U.S. government officials cite the Iraq operation as a success.

"More than 50 percent of adult Iraqis tune in to Alhurra at least once a week," said James Glassman, the Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy who served until earlier this year as chair of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees Alhurra.

U.S. government polling shows Alhurra is the No. 4 network in Iraq. But that ranking reveals nothing about the content, the behind-the-scenes battles and the financial problems that have plagued the Iraqi broadcast.

Glassman and other members of the Board have said they exert editorial and financial controls over Alhurra, but interviews with current and former employees and an examination of government and internal records indicate there is little or no oversight of the Iraqi broadcasts. The network has never conducted an audit or inventory of the Baghdad bureau, which employs as many as 40 people.

Three people with direct knowledge of the operation said tens of thousands of dollars sent to the bureau cannot be accounted for and described financial records in disarray at Alhurra's headquarters in Springfield, Va. Alhurra used to send envelopes of petty cash to Baghdad each month but now uses wire transfers instead. The business manager, who approves all Baghdad expenses, has never visited the bureau.

Neither Alhurra's president, Brian Conniff, nor his news director Danny Nassif, has visited the Baghdad bureau or met many of the reporters and producers who were hired to present a positive view of U.S. efforts in the region. The only bureau chief the two top managers have met resigned last month. Saad Mohan, who served from May 2007 to June 2008 sent a resignation letter citing numerous examples of financial waste. He said that editors sitting in Springfield had demanded a pro-Iranian slant to the bureau's coverage.

Larry Register, a former CNN executive who ran Alhurra for eight turbulent months between November 2006 and June 2007, said names of "ghost" employees sometimes appeared on payroll lists and he was never sure how many people actually worked in the bureau.

"It was impossible to know. We tried to get explainers on what each person did. Once we started demanding some proof and told them we would only pay a certain number of people, some names began to drop from the list," Register said. Current employees said those problems continue to exist today and it is difficult to verify who actually works for the company in Iraq and where millions of dollars go each month.

Religious infighting inside the Iraq bureau and the Springfield studios between Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish staff has resulted in a fist-fight, firings and dramatic resignations. The U.S.-based executive producer for the Iraq broadcasts, a religious Shiite named Salem Mashkour, spent years in exile in Tehran and Beirut after fleeing Saddam Hussein's regime. Mashkour demoted employees who drink alcohol outside of work, according to Register and several former employees.

Alhurra Indifferent to Key U.S. Policy in Iraq

Alhurra went live on Valentine's Day 2004 as a budding insurgency was taking hold in Iraq and American officials were looking to counter the influence of Al Jazeera, the most widely watched Arab-language network.

Months later, the United States kicked off plans for Iraqi elections, a major initiative by the Bush administration to hasten democracy and stability more than a year after the U.S. invasion. But Alhurra, whose name means "The Free One," appeared disinterested.

In a series of e-mail exchanges between the State Department and the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, diplomats began questioning what Alhurra was up to.

Despite assurances from network executives that the station would "be fully involved in the electoral process, for some reason that has not translated into coverage and programs," U.S. Ambassador Christopher Ross wrote to colleagues at the State Department.

In an e-mail to Alberto Fernandez, the top diplomat for public diplomacy in the Middle East, and Robert Callahan, the spokesman for the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, Ross worried that Iraqis did not fully understand the significance of the coming election season. "All too many Iraqis think the elections are simply a referendum for a new President." The United States needed a way to help educate the public, Ross wrote, and Alhurra wasn't helping.

When the election season ended, candidates who ran with the support of the White House had done poorly. American fingers that had pointed at Al Jazeera were now aiming at Alhurra.

Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite with close ties to the CIA, had served as interim prime minister from July 2004 until April 2005. But his secular coalition won only 25 of 275 parliamentary seats in December 2005, losing badly to more religious, Iranian-backed Shiite candidates.

Alberto Fernandez told Karen Hughes, then Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy, in an e-mail marked "sensitive," that Alhurra's Baghdad bureau was stocked "with radical Shiite Islamists who favored their political brethren and discriminated against and intimidated members of other parties (including the secular alliance headed by former PM Allawi), especially during the Iraqi electoral season of December 2004 to December 2005."

Hughes did not respond to a request for comment.

A Question of Leadership

Mashkour, the executive producer of the Iraq broadcasts, worked in Tehran as a reporter and later covered politics and Islam in Beirut. In 2000, he wrote a flattering column about Hassan Nassrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, whom Mashkour called a hero.

Mashkour joined Alhurra at its inception in 2004. Two years later, inspectors from the Government Accountability Office asked to meet the executive producers at Alhurra. At the time, there were two: a producer for the Middle East broadcast and Mashkour, who oversaw the Iraq operation. But Mashkour never made it to the meeting. Instead, the GAO team was introduced to a more junior producer who posed, at the request of his bosses, as the executive producer, according to two people who attended the meeting.

"Salem doesn't speak English and no one wanted the GAO to know that the person in charge of presenting an American perspective to an Iraqi audience can't even read the morning headlines here," one person with knowledge of the meeting said. "You'd be hard pressed to find more than a handful on the Iraq stream who speaks English."

Aside from the language barrier, there were other issues with Mashkour that troubled managers.

"I had concerns over his editorial bent, that it was too much in favor of Shiites," Register said. The night Saddam Hussein was executed, Mashkour, who lives with his family in Virginia and hosts a talk show on the network, was joyous on air and danced in the studio.

Register said Mashkour's off-camera management style was problematic. "He had a good handle on the Shiite part of the story. He brought value as long as he wasn't in a managerial role." Register replaced Mashkour as the head of the Iraqi broadcasts but let him keep his talk shows, which aired in Iraq.

When Register was forced to resign in June 2007 after a string of missteps, news director Nassif reinstated Mashkour as executive producer.

But Mashkour has clashed badly with colleagues. In May, he got into a physical fight in Nassif's office with the Baghdad bureau chief, Saad Mohan, who was visiting Springfield. Mohan resigned shortly afterward.

Mohan was the fifth person to abruptly leave the Iraq broadcast in the last year, citing problems with Nassif and Mashkour.

“They only want radical people on air, people with a pro-Iranian agenda,” Mohan said last month.

In an interview two days after Mohan's resignation, Nassif said the Baghdad operation was going well.

When asked about the resignation, he shrugged and said Mohan had trouble with authority.

Reporter Robert Lewis contributed research to this story.

Update/Correction: This post originally misidentified the senior American diplomat who wrote an e-mail critical of Alhurra. He was Christopher Ross, not Christopher Hill.

Correction: This article originally referred to a "business manager, who approves checks, pays bill and sends thick envelopes of petty cash to Baghdad each month." The practice of sending cash from the U.S. is no longer in effect.

FBI HQ Not Secure for Classified Intel

2008-07-08T10:40:00-05:00

by Eric Umansky

The FBI has long been criticized as a kind of technological trouble child. Its attempt to upgrade a key computer system has been a costly debacle. As of last year, about a third of FBI employees hadn't been given e-mail, while two-thirds weren't provided with computers.

Add another item to the list: It turns out the FBI's headquarters isn't up to spec for handling classified intelligence. Steven Aftergood, at the Federation of American Scientists' Secrecy News, noticed a report from the Senate Appropriations Committee complaining about the situation.

"The Hoover Building does not meet the Interagency Security Committee's criteria for a secure Federal facility capable of handling intelligence and other sensitive information," the Senate report stated.

"The Committee finds these conditions unacceptable and directs the Government Accountability Office [GAO] to review the Hoover Building and associated off-site locations, and provide an analysis of the FBI's ability to fulfill its mission and security requirements under the present circumstances," the report said.

As Aftergood noted, the FBI is planning to build a "Central Records Complex" outside D.C. that will be capable of handling classified material. We put in a call to the FBI to ask when that project will be done and whether upgrading HQ itself is in the cards. We'll let you know what they say.

BBG Responds to ProPublica’s Alhurra Investigation—And We Have Some Questions for Them

2008-06-30T14:00:01-05:00

by Dafna Linzer

July 22: This post has been corrected.

Broadcasting Board of Governors member Joaquin Blaya has responded to ProPublica's Alhurra investigation.

We're pleased that Joaquin Blaya, the member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors who principally oversees Alhurra, has now joined the discussion about the network.

Since Mr. Blaya is now willing to answer questions, here are some for which we are still seeking answers:

How can you reconcile your congressional testimony of May 16, 2007 on the report from the Holocaust deniers conference, quoted here:
Congressman Pence: "Am I clear to understand that the people directly involved as producers and reporters in these two incidents, and I refer specifically to the Holocaust conference reporting and then the decision to broadcast the unedited speech by the Hezbollah leader; those individuals are no longer in the employ of the network?"

Mr. Blaya: "That is correct."
and here:
Congressman Ackerman: "How did it work?"

Mr. Blaya: "Reporter, producer, and on the air."

Congressman Ackerman: "Who are these—I do not mean the specific——"

Mr. Blaya: "First of all, they are no longer there, the people that made these egregious mistakes are no longer there."
with the fact that the reporter in question remained an employee of Radio Sawa, Alhurra’s sister radio station, which you also oversee? Did you know, at the time of your testimony, that the reporter remained at Sawa?
Your letter makes reference to Alhurra transcripts in English. We understand you do not speak Arabic. How do you personally keep track of Alhurra’s content? Do you read these or other transcripts? How many and how often?
How frequently do you visit Alhurra’s studios in Virginia? When were you there most recently before our story was broadcast?
What is your reaction to the March 24, 2008 Sawa broadcast of an anonymous militant’s call for the death of more U.S. troops?
Your letter compares Alhurra’s viewership with non-Arab broadcasters and you say that Alhurra was not created, in the words of our story, to “counter a wave of global criticism that had been building against the Bush Administration.” Your colleague, Governor Jeffrey Hirschberg, testified that “Alhurra was created as an alternative to existing Arab-speaking media, which had in common a number of things, including hate-speak, disinformation, incitement to violence, government censorship and journalistic self-censorship.” Do you share his view?

Read Joaquin Blaya's full response and his testimony before Congress.

Correction: This post originally stated that Alhurra had not received a "clean" financial audit. It has received such audits.

Alhurra’s News Director

2008-06-25T17:00:00-05:00

Alhurra Paid Former White House Aides, Washington Journalists

2008-06-24T16:59:00-05:00

by Dafna Linzer

Alhurra, the U.S. government-funded Arabic news channel, paid former Bush and Clinton administration officials, lobbyists and high-profile Washington journalists tens of thousands of dollars in U.S. taxpayer money to appear on the network as commentators, according to interviews and a review of company records.

A number of payments went to people tied to the White House and the Republican Party. Chad Kolton, a former spokesman for the Director of National Intelligence and Federal Emergency Management Agency; Trent Duffy, President Bush’s former deputy press secretary; Jennifer Millerwise Dyck, a former aid to Vice President Cheney and former CIA spokeswoman, and Terry Holt, the spokesman for Bush-Cheney 2004, were among those paid to appear.

Morton Kondracke, the conservative commentator and executive editor of Roll Call; David Corn, the Washington bureau chief of Mother Jones, and Washington Times reporters Bill Gertz and Joseph Curl also made paid appearances on Alhurra in the last six months.

Alhurra, a 24-hour satellite station, was founded by the Bush administration four years ago to project a positive image of the United States to Middle East viewers. Despite lagging ratings, management shake-ups and incomplete financial records, Alhurra’s budget has nearly doubled to $112 million since it went on air in 2004.

Alhurra was the subject of a joint investigation by ProPublica and CBS News’ 60 Minutes. The network and its sister radio station, Sawa, have aired anti-American and anti-Israeli viewpoints, have showcased pro-Iranian policies and recently gave air time to a militant who called for the death of American soldiers in Iraq. The investigative report, broadcast Sunday on 60 Minutes and detailed on ProPublica, also described years of concerns raised by State Department officials and by current and former employees regarding the network’s content, the quality of its staff, and a lack of government oversight. The Washington Post examined Alhurra's image in the Middle East in a feature story Monday. The reports sparked a call from Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) for a congressional investigation of Alhurra.

As part of its continuing investigation of Alhurra, ProPublica has reviewed rosters of guests who appeared on the network in the first six months of 2008. During that period, Alhurra spent $108,000 on guest fees for its news programs, according to a review of documents detailing the expenses. The network paid tens of thousands of dollars more for private car services to ferry guests to studio appearances in Springfield, Va. Alhurra has a separate budget for guest appearances for talk shows and current affairs programs, according to several individuals with knowledge of the appearances.

A number of well-known Democratic strategists and policy analysts were among those paid for appearing on Alhurra news programs. Doug Schoen, the Democratic pollster and former advisor to President Clinton, earned a total of $1,050 for three appearances in January. Steve Murphy, who worked for former Democratic Congressman Richard Gephardt of Missouri, earned $5,500 for nine appearances during the primary season.

Thomas Donnelly, of the conservative American Enterprise Institute, was the highest-paid news guest, earning $10,300 for eight lengthy appearances between January and April to comment on the U.S. elections. Donnelly said he spent at least three hours on air during each appearance.

“I think it was a useful thing to do. If there was anything that was going to show off the competitive and participatory nature of an American democracy, it was the Democratic primaries,” he said. “And it was interesting to explain to Middle Eastern audiences how a guy named Barack Hussein Obama might be President of the United States.”

Donnelly said he was often on the air with Edward Joseph, a Democrat who is a fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Joseph was the second highest paid guest on Alhurra. He received $7,700, also for eight appearances.

Kolton, Duffy and Holt, the former Bush administration officials, earned $4,000 collectively between January and April. The three men became partners at the Washington media relations firm HDMK last fall.

Alhurra spokeswoman Deirdre Kline did not respond to inquiries regarding the network’s policies on honorariums.

Alhurra also paid $500 to Danny Ayalon, Israel’s former ambassador to Washington, to explain the New Hampshire primaries to an Arab audience.

Although it is common for television networks to pay journalists who appear on their programs, many reporters decline to accept money from government-funded organizations. Still, a number of veteran Washington reporters earned hundreds of dollars for appearing on Alhurra and some said they saw no conflict of interest in accepting government funds.

Kondracke, of Roll Call, a Washington paper that covers Congress, received $1,600 in government funds for two appearances earlier this year. Kondrake said through his assistant that he knew of no policy that prevented him from accepting fees from Alhurra.

Roll Call editor Charlie Mitchell said in an e-mail he did not see a conflict.

“Mort clearly was not taking an editorial position for the newspaper but was speaking as a syndicated columnist and recognized expert on U.S. politics and policy. Our policy on freelancing is that employees may do so on their own time. We expect them to live up to Roll Call's standards of objectivity but otherwise we don't screen their appearances.”

Kelly McBride, a specialist on media ethics at the Poynter Institute, a professional journalism center in St. Petersburg, Fla., said reporters damage their ability to be objective when they accept government money.

“Roll Call is supposed to objectively cover Congress, and Alhurra is funded by Congress. You wouldn’t let a reporter take money from a clearly partisan group. The same standard should apply to taking money from an operation set up by the government to influence opinion.”

David Corn of the liberal magazine Mother Jones received $1,300 from Alhurra and said he saw no conflict. “I don’t think anyone can accuse me of going soft on the U.S. government,” said Corn, co-author of Hubris, a book that sharply criticized the Bush administration’s Iraq war plans.

Still, Eddie Scher, a spokesman for Mother Jones, said the magazine was updating its ethics policies and would not support further paid appearances by Corn or other employees on Alhurra.

Other paid reporters included Washington Times reporters Bill Gertz, who received $600, and Joe Curl, who earned $750 for appearances this year. Gertz did not respond to a call for comment. Curl has not yet responded to a request for comment.

John Solomon, who was named executive editor of The Washington Times earlier this year, put a newsroom “code of conduct” into effect two weeks ago that prohibits employees from accepting money from the government. When his reporters appeared on air, “there were no conflict of interest rules in the newsroom at all,” Solomon said.

Washington Examiner reporter Bill Sammon did not respond to calls about his relationship with Alhurra.

On Jan. 12, Sammon published a brief interview with Alhurra employee Julie Zann. Zann was identified by Sammon as a producer; her job is to book guests for the network’s news programs. On Jan. 15, three days after Sammon’s article was published, he appeared on Alhurra to discuss the Michigan primary and received $500 from the station. He also received a $1,500 payment from Alhurra two weeks later for a Jan. 28 appearance to discuss President Bush’s State of the Union speech. The Examiner did not respond to a request for comment.

Alhurra also paid small fees to reporters from the Des Moines Register, the Texas Monthly, Politico, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and the Financial Times of London.

Amity Shlaes, who writes opinion columns for Bloomberg news, was paid $300 to discuss U.S. stock markets. Alhurra identified Shlaes in financial records as a Bloomberg reporter, but she said she appeared in her capacity as a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, where she works.

Many of the guests who appeared on the news programs were academics, authors and members of Washington think-tanks. Alhurra also paid several former members of Congress. Democrat Tony Coelho, a former California congressman, received $750 for two appearances; Ron Klink, a former Democratic representative of Pennsylvania, received $1,700, and former representative George Nethercutt, a Republican from Washington State, received $1,250.

Harlan Ullman, considered the architect of the military’s “shock and awe” doctrine which guided planning for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, earned $1,500 in fees for commenting on the primary races.

Barbara Comstock, a Republican lobbyist who was a consultant to the presidential campaign of former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, earned $2,400 for appearances in February, March and April.

Georgette Mosbacher, the Republican fundraiser and New York socialite who co-chaired John McCain’s 2000 bid for the presidency, was paid $500 to comment on the New Hampshire primary race.

Matthew Townsend, Matthew Schwarzfeld and Jonathan Sidhu contributed to this story.

Update: Bill Gertz of the Washington Times responds: "All aspects of my appearances were approved in advance by senior editors and therefore were in compliance with newsroom policy at the time. The Times recently put in place new rules that would restrict such appearances in the future."

Update/Correction: This post originally stated that Amity Shlaes received $500 for an appearance on Alhurra. She received $300.

July 21 Update: The Washington Examiner responded to this story today with a comment from executive editor Stephen Smith: "we expect members of our staff to not accept remuneration for activities that would in any way compromise their work or even create an appearance of a conflict of interest.

"We've only had one case in which one of our reporters accepted an honorarium that we thought might create an appearance of a conflict and we immediately directed the reporter to not accept honoraria of that nature."

The paper did not identify the reporter.

Examiner reporter Bill Sammon received $2,000 in honoraria from Alhurra for two appearances. Three days before his first appearance, he published a brief interview with Alhurra employee Julie Zann.

Former Alhurra Employee Tries To Break Into White House

2008-06-23T14:45:00-05:00

by Robert Lewis

A former Alhurra employee was arrested earlier this month when he tried to break into the White House. The incident came just days after Homam Ali, 22, was allegedly fired for poor performance from his production assistant job at Alhurra, headquartered in Springfield, Va., where he had worked three years, according to two people at Alhurra familiar with his employment status.

According to a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Ali, who lives in Lorton, Va., approached a Secret Service officer at the northeast entrance gate of the White House at 1 p.m. on June 6. Ali said he wanted "to pass classified information on to the President concerning Iraq," according to the complaint. When the officer asked Ali to leave, he complied, but threw his driver's license, social security card and permanent resident ID card through the fence and onto the north grounds of the White House. Ten minutes later he returned and tried to force his way into the visitor's exit. Two officers tackled Ali and took him to a police station for processing.

"It was a pretty routine thing - other than his alleged journalistic background," said Eric Zahren, a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service.

Reached by phone, Ali said he "was on vacation" when he went to the White House. He denied trying to break in to pass information to the President.

"Sure, I'd like to see him," Ali added.

Ali refused to comment on his experience at Alhurra. "I've got no story, man," he said before hanging up. He is scheduled to be in D.C. Superior Court on June 30 for a status hearing on a misdemeanor charge of unlawful entry, which carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail.