I covered the first Gulf War in Saudi Arabia and Israel for ABC News.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I've covered Israel just as I cover other politics.
On the flip side, I enjoy covering the Arab world, I've spent my entire career here in the Middle East, but I would never call myself a war correspondent.
Public interest in most of the Middle East was slight at that time; the Arab-Israeli conflict was all that people were interested in and that was not my specialty.
News is the backbone of our network; the main commodity and the main successes of Al Jazeera came out of our involvement in covering the news in the Middle East.
The U.S. media have done a shameful job of reporting on the Arab world.
I've covered a couple wars and a lot of breaking news and a lot of cops-and-robbers situations.
I covered the Vietnam War. I remember the lies that were told, the lives that were lost - and the shock when, twenty years after the war ended, former Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara admitted he knew it was a mistake all along.
Qatar-based 'Al-Jazeera,' the most important news channel in the Arab world, was harshly criticized by high U.S. officials for having 'emphasized civilian casualties' during the destruction of Falluja. The problem of independent media was later resolved when the channel was kicked out of Iraq in preparation for free elections.
I was a war correspondent in Korea. I did a book on it: 'This is War.'
I watch 'Al Jazeera.' They have news that you can't find anywhere else. They do great documentaries, too.