We're finally getting Al Jazeera in America

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http://news.yahoo.com/why-al-gore-sold- ... 00367.html

From what I've seen of Al Jazeera, it seems to be the world's best news source.

Allahu Akbar!

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I don't know - the news station has more than a few controversies of its own.

I would take it with a pinch of salt. I sometimes watch Russia Today, and I consider that to be similar in that it's remarkably fair in British politics, giving airtime to voices slightly outside the mainstream (and to anti-EU voices in particular) but I wouldn't trust anything it said about Russia itself with a bargepole. The same is most likely true of al-Jazeera in that I wouldn't trust its Israel coverage or a lot of coverage about the Arab world. Still, it's apparently a fair few rungs higher up than Press TV, the propaganda channel of the mad maniacs running Iran, who have such sterling representatives of Britain as Lauren Booth, Yvonne Ridley and George Galloway still fronting them here - i.e. the Islamist far-left fringe (a couple of respectable UK journalists and public figures, like Andrew Gilligan, did actually appear on the station but quit when they realised the regime they were helping to defend).

Apparently, the Arabic version of the channel is a fair bit more contentious than the English-language one, but this isn't unknown in the Arab world. (See the Palestinian leadership for more examples - saying peace in one language for the Western media and war in another for their domestic audience.)

I've had Al Jazeera on satellite for years,LINK t.v.and Free speech t.v. both have it.

I actually have so many channels that I don't know most of what I have, anyway.

The same Al Jazeera that called the man who smashed in the head of a 4-year old Israeli girl a "pan-Arab hero"?

^^^^^^^That's awful,but there are atrocities on both sides.
I like to watch news from other countries because it gives a perspective from other viewpoints,that doesn't mean I agree with it.
I also get B.B.C.,a Russian news channel,and Korean news.Sometimes the Korean is captioned in English.

I welcome any news channel besides American news, even if I disagree with some perspectives and know they aren't perfect. No, it's not because I hate America, but because US news channels just rotate through the same things over and over again. You would think it was because nothing is else is going on, but this isn't true. There are all kinds of interesting world news events happening that are only mentioned in that little scroll at the bottom while the talking heads are giving repeated updates on any minute changes in the state of Hillary Clinton's head injury or whatever. They rarely if ever really report on all the stuff going on in the world outside of America or other culture and nationality's point of view.

When most of the criticism aimed at a news network is "it stands up for freedom too much!", then it's probably on good ground.

Aside from the sections entitled "Israel", "Somalia", and "anti-Semitism", those points are largely in al-Jazeera's favour. It didn't really report on the Bahrain uprising... you know, like every other news outlet, but criticising police violence and imprisonment without trial can hardly be blots against an organisation.

It is good. I used to watch it when I still watched TV.

By the way, it's been available in the US for a long time by satellite. It's the cable and some satellite subscription companies that weren't carrying it.

Last edited by BlueAbyss on 04 Jan 2013, 3:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I dont even have cable, and Ive gotten Al Jazeera for years!

Dispensed with cable to save money and set up my digital box to get stuff off the air.
So its like ive gone back to the seventies and only get a handful of stations. But one of them is Al Jazeera of all things.

If you expect it to be like that SNL sketch in the 90's - and expect to see a newsroom staffed by ladies in burkas who end every story with an upraised clenched fist and a perky "death to america" you will be dissappointed.

Its just another boring old news network like the BBC, or MSNBC, or Fox.

Just another flavor in the news buffet-neither more biased, nor less, than any other.
But it does have interesting exotic bias that I do recomend if you wanna savor the news buffet of the world.

The Arab Spring got as much coverage in both Al Jazeera and in Russia Today as in american media.

But Russia Today was totally anti nato and anti rebel anti american,and pro Khaddafi and continues to be pro Assad in its staunchly biased coverage. In stark contrast Al Jazeera was a cheerleader for arab rebels and couldve been mistaken for a public relations mouthpiece for US foriegn policy despite Al Jazeera's anti american reputation.

I expected demonizing of Israel (along with the newsladies in burkas) but when Israel is mentioned it much the way the Old Soviet Union would be portrayed in American news: Israel is spoken of an adversary, and they like to focus dissident groups and dissident individuals in Israel (much like 60 minutes would focus on soviet dissidents)and they dont bend over backwards to give the Isreali pov. But they dont demonize Israel in a rabid way that you might expect.

Its a great counter balance to the bias in american media.

So savor it- with the same grain of salt that you savor FOX and MSNBC or the Beeb.

And it comes from the same country that demanded that the UN create "International Autism Awareness Day". That country being Qatar.

Thanks to Al Bore, the inventor of the Internet.

ruveyn

Its the same shite presented in a different manner
thesis antithesis synthesis

Must wait and see before I judge. I bet a lot of people take issue with it.

I guess it's good there's another network on air, but I'm suspicious of Qatari government ownership. Not that I fear they will be a Qatari government mouthpiece, but no private media has pockets as deep as the Qatari government's. The same goes for the BBC in this country.

It's been on PBS for at least several years.