BOB GARFIELD: We're back with On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And I'm Brooke Gladstone. The U.S. military war in Iraq may be ending, but the U.S. media war has just begun. The destruction of Iraqi TV facilities by U.S. forces has created a void, and this week the U.S. government will fill it with an American-style news service. It will include the translated newscasts of Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather. Also PBS and Fox news as well as reports from Arab journalists in Washington and the Middle East. Enlisted to develop the show is Westwood One Chairman Norman Pattiz, creator of Radio Sawa, the U.S.-sponsored Arabic language radio station. That's right now. He's also working on a 24 hour Arab language satellite TV network fort the U.S. that will beam the American perspective across the Middle East. But Pattiz says that that network is months for completion, and while ground transmitters are being replaced in Iraq, Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw will be doing fly-bys.

NORMAN PATTIZ: Now that those facilities and some transmitters have been destroyed, we're broadcasting in there using the Defense Department's airplane's Commando Solo -- it's really a broadcast platform, and they allow us to use it to distribute our signal.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: So you've gotten most of the major U.S. news outlets to participate, but you haven't gotten CNN. Why did they decline?

NORMAN PATTIZ:You know you really should ask them. You know I saw a statement where they said they didn't think it was appropriate for CNN to be involved with the U.S. government. Let me just say that part of the agreement with the networks is that we do not edit their programming and we provide faithful translations so that the programming that is provided is actually what is seen here in the United States.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:But what about the perception? I mean I would imagine the reason why CNN declined is because it has a degree of trust with its international audiences, and ABC and CBS and even NBC don't have those sorts of relationships to make or break. Isn't the very fact that this is being offered by a U.S. government sponsored operation enough to give it the appearance of propaganda?

NORMAN PATTIZ: I don't think so. We have a journalistic mission, and we have been able to prove through the existence of Radio Sawa over the last year that a U.S. government sponsored media entity can resonate with an audience throughout the region. I mean Radio Sawa in many of the places where it's broadcast and its target audience reaches over 90 percent of the target audience that we're going after. And when we ask what radio station has the most reliable and credible news, over 40 percent say Radio Sawa has the most reliable and credible news, and incidentally in a recent survey that we did throughout the region in October of 30 and unders we asked Sawa listeners and we asked non-Sawa listeners about their feelings about the United States. There was a marked difference between Sawa listeners and non-Sawa listeners, and generally Sawa listeners had a significantly better impression of the United States.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:But Mr. Pattiz when you surveyed the Sawa listeners, you're surveying pretty much a self-selected group. They'd probably be more inclined to the station because they're more inclined to Western culture, Western music and even Western ideas. Perhaps a more useful survey would be to ask has your mind changed towards the West in the time that you've been listening to Radio Sawa, cause the numbers that you cite, though encouraging, don't necessarily mean that Sawa's having an effect.

NORMAN PATTIZ: Well I, I guess we're just going to have to disagree on that. [LAUGHS]

BROOKE GLADSTONE: [LAUGHS] Okay. Let's talk about the U.S. sponsored Arab language satellite TV channel that will cover the whole region that I guess you're planning to launch in about six months or so?

NORMAN PATTIZ: That's right. It will be primarily news and information driven, so it will have the look of a CNN or a Fox or an MSNBC during significant portions of the broadcast day, but it won't be all news and information. You'll see movies and entertainment television programs. You'll probably see a morning show. There'll be kids' programming; maybe sports. There's a much more competitive and rich television environment within the region, so consequently it's going to be more challenging to attract an audience of the kind of size and scope that we were able to by putting Sawa on which was clearly unique and different from anything that listeners were able to hear in the region.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:As you know, there are many satellite-delivered news channels there and more and more all the time as we've noted on this program. What do you think you'll be able to provide that is different?

NORMAN PATTIZ: We'll be the only Western satellite television station in the Arabic language. One of the things that we might bring is a little balance and also be able to present our message with the kind of rhetoric that indicates that there is some mutual respect.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:A couple of weeks ago we spoke to the head of Al Jazeera's English language internet service, and she was talking about something that I guess has come to be called "contextual objectivity." She says people will call Al Jazeera biased, but it presents the facts as they are on the ground. The difference is that it presents them in a way that suits the filter of their audiences. Just as CNN spent most of its time offering the war from the perspective of the soldiers, Al Jazeera spent most of its time presenting the war from the perspective of the Iraqi people.

NORMAN PATTIZ: Well you know I may be old-fashioned, but I don't think that's the way journalism should be, and you know I think programming to your audience with certain kinds of programming is certainly appropriate, but when you program the news to your audience, it tends not to be the news any more. Years ago the news used to form public opinion, and now in many cases it panders to it.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:Agreed, but I guess what I'm saying is that there is going to be an American cultural bias; no matter how hard one tries -- one sees the world in a particular way. American news organizations try and offer the news for the most part in a balanced and objective way, but Arab audiences would see it very differently. Similarly they'll see the news that you present in a way that almost by definition will be less credible, I imagine.

NORMAN PATTIZ: Well I'm not sure that's the case. but I mean what are we to do? We can get into the game and let viewers determine for themselves what the actual facts are and what kind of credibility each approach to the news has.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Okay! Thank you very much.

NORMAN PATTIZ: Thank you! It's always nice to talk to you.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Norman Pattiz is chairman of Westwood One and a member of the U.S. Board of Broadcasting Governors.