BOB GARFIELD: In May, Al-Jazeera, now solely an Arabic-language news channel, will launch Al-Jazeera International, an English-language version of the network and the first English-language news channel based in the Middle East. Al-Jazeera claims that it will be the first truly unbiased international news network, while critics, who have long seen Al-Jazeera as an anti-American propaganda tool, wait to see how Al-Jazeera International will distinguish itself from its parent. Al-Jazeera has hired a slew of reporters and anchors from all over the world, including former U.S. Marine Joshua Rushing, featured in the documentary Control Room, and veteran British reporter Sir David Frost. They've also hired Dave Marash, former correspondent for ABC News's "Nightline." Marash will anchor from Al-Jazeera International's DC studio.

DAVE MARASH: Al-Jazeera in Arabic is, I believe, one of the most revolutionary and positive influences on the Arabic-speaking, mostly Islamic Middle Eastern world in, literally, centuries. It has opened up public discourse and it has brought American standards of reporting to an area that previously had nothing but really moronically state-controlled television and news operations.

BOB GARFIELD: Al-Jazeera in Arabic serves some 40 million Arabic-speaking viewers around the world, but mostly in the Middle East. According to Marash, Al-Jazeera aims to create the widest possible debate, and that means including the most extreme views.

DAVE MARASH: And to us in the West, the extremes of that context seem obnoxious or worse, even intolerable. But in that region, if Al-Jazeera in Arabic were politically correct and scrubbed the extremes from its debate, it would lose all of its credibility with its viewers, who know that anti-Israeli attitudes are prevalent in the region and flat, ugly anti-Semitic attitudes are also widely distributed. The only way that I believe that they can be combated is in direct intellectual combat, and you can't do that by excluding them. Now, Al-Jazeera International is going to be a global channel, operating from four regional bases - 11 hours a day from Doha, in Qatar, 5 hours a day from London, 5 hours a day from Washington, 3 hours a day from Kuala Lumpur. Over the course of a 24-hour day, you are going to hear globally significant news stories discussed and approached from four different regional points of view.

BOB GARFIELD: Clearly, the brand name "Al-Jazeera" carries with it a whole lot of baggage. Do you think that could complicate the fairly mundane task of booking guests for Al-Jazeera International in Washington or elsewhere in the world?

DAVE MARASH: I don't think the guest booking is going to be a problem, because most of the people whom we would want to book as guests know the Al-Jazeera brand does stand for editorial integrity and quality. Obviously, I think when it comes to distribution, particularly on cable systems in the United States, many of the false things that people think they know about Al-Jazeera will create a political problem. You know, a lot of canards have been spread about Al-Jazeera by very high-ranking government officials who repeat them in the face of repeated corrections as to their falsity. For example, Donald Rumsfeld has said Al-Jazeera shows beheadings. Never, never, never, never. And, in fact, when we do show videos, for example, of hostages, Al-Jazeera in Arabic regularly scrubs the sound off them because they do not want to spread pleas for people's lives that are being forced on them under duress. Why do they show the video? Well, one, we think that it does keep hostages alive by increasing their value, and, two, because the hostage situation, and, in the case of Jill Carroll, in particular, in the United States, these are news stories, and that's how they're covered, as news.

BOB GARFIELD: Al-Jazeera is principally owned by the Emirate of Qatar, and your salary, I presume, ultimately comes from government coffers. How does that affect the way you're going to approach your work and do you fear some sort of political restraints on what Al-Jazeera International may be able to do?

DAVE MARASH: In a way, that's one of Al-Jazeera's advantages, I believe, Bob. The state of Qatar has about 150,000 people in it. It has some oil, but not huge oil wealth. And the state and the emir have basically made a capitalist decision, that there are two sectors in which they are going to take their present oil revenue and try and make that a base for future revenue. One of those sectors is the media, the various Al-Jazeera channels. The other is education, where the wife of the emir has been instrumental in setting up a large university in Qatar, expected to become, as Al-Jazeera is expected to become, a revenue-producing capitalist base, if you will, for this state. Qatar really has one national interest, other than its economic growth, and that would be survival. Beyond that, it can hardly pretend to have real national interests, and so therefore Al-Jazeera is almost perfectly clear of any national interest or any dictated political policy.

BOB GARFIELD: I want to ask you one final thing. You're Jewish, and you've already taken some criticism of being a self-loathing Jew, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel. You've been called "Marash of Arabia." What's it like going through this experience and dealing with that portion of the American Jewish community that thinks you're a traitor?

DAVE MARASH: You have to just shake off what are basically hysterical, ignorant and ugly statements. I am proud to be a Jew. I believe if harmony is to be achieved between the Judeo-Christian West and the mostly Islamic Middle East, the first people who will be making steps towards peace on the Arab side are the modernizers, are the secularists, are the free market free speakers, in other words, the very people who started and back and, I believe, listen to and value Al-Jazeera in Arabic and hopefully Al-Jazeera International. I'm proud to associate myself with those on the Jewish side who do seek peace and harmony, and if that offends some of my co-religionists or fellow Americans, all I can say is it's a free country.

BOB GARFIELD: All right, Dave. Well, good luck in the new gig.

DAVE MARASH: Thank you, Bob.

BOB GARFIELD: Dave Marash will be the senior Washington anchor of Al-Jazeera International when it launches this spring. [MUSIC UP AND UNDER]

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Coming up, victims of e-mail scams fight back, and why flash mobs won't be coming to a neighborhood near you.

BOB GARFIELD: This is On the Media from NPR.