What do you think about Al-Jazeera ?

[DWW]

I'm just curious on opinions about Al-Jazeera.

I notice that everytime something goes awry over in the middle east they always have it videotaped and ready to go. They seem to claim a lot of anonymous sources but I wonder if they are linked to evil doers themselves.

A lot of terrorist tapes have been on the web recently but many are still submitted through Al-Jazeera. If they didn't exist, most scumbags over there wouldn't have a medium and might not be abducting civilians for beheadings.

I don't know, just a thought.

Do you think the US should put their show "off the air" so to speak?

 

[Dedpuhl]

They piss of people in the region just as much as they tend to piss us off...

 

[rickn]

It makes me hate them people even more

 

[maddogchen]

I don't think shutting down Al-Jazeera will work. Terrorists will just find another network to air their news.

Are they buddy-buddy with evil doers? I think they have sources in Terrorists networks that regularly supply them with information. But that doesn't mean they're buddies. News journalists love a good source, especially one that provides them with news first before other networks get it. That doesn't mean they support the sources, it just helps make their jobs easier.

 

[naddicott]

I saw the movie "Control Room" today - it's mostly about Al-Jazeera and their experience covering the 2nd Iraq war.

Judging by that documentary, the folks there are mostly good people. The main producer at the home office admitted that he would work for Fox News in a second if they offered him a job (and that he planned on sending his children to US colleges regardless). The staff of Al-Jazeera appeared to consider themselves journalists primarily, yet they have to be mindful of the sort of coverage their viewership is interested in seeing. It was funny seeing their reaction when the CentCom media handlers were pitching the Jessica Lynch story to the Al-Jazeera staff when there were initial reports that US forces were inside Baghdad. Their expressions seemed to say "you want us to cover that?!? Now?!?"

I think it's a good sign that it's not just the U.S. government that Al-Jazeera irritates - some Arab governments have banned the broadcast of Al-Jazeera in their countries due to unflattering coverage of those governments' own policies.

In the infamous words of Rumsfeld, "the truth will get out eventually" - there's no point in advocating the squelching of a media outlet, nomatter how distasteful to your own sensibilities. That would be a very un-American thing to do.

[edit: here's a good review of "Control Room" that summarizes most of the key moments.]

 

[DeeKnow]

Originally posted by: Dedpuhl
They piss of people in the region just as much as they tend to piss us off...

correction.. most folks in the middle-east love that station. and not difficult to see why..
for most of them, its the first time in their lives there is any sort of 'open' debate on a public media.

now the establishment - that's another story. literally every govt (or whatever passes for govt in that part of the world) in the region would like to see a 'friendly-fire incident' take them off the airwaves.

 

[thebenjamins]

Originally posted by: DWW
I'm just curious
I don't know, just a thought.

kid, concentrate on these bits.

 

[Klixxer]

Originally posted by: DWW
I'm just curious on opinions about Al-Jazeera.

I notice that everytime something goes awry over in the middle east they always have it videotaped and ready to go. They seem to claim a lot of anonymous sources but I wonder if they are linked to evil doers themselves.

A lot of terrorist tapes have been on the web recently but many are still submitted through Al-Jazeera. If they didn't exist, most scumbags over there wouldn't have a medium and might not be abducting civilians for beheadings.

I don't know, just a thought.

Do you think the US should put their show "off the air" so to speak?

"report what we tell you or you will be taken off the air one way or another"?

Sounds like USSR to me.

 

[Jhhnn]

Al Jazeera is the Arabic language equivalent of Fox News- pandering to the lowest common denominator popular sentiment in the audience...

 

[lozina]

Al Jazeera is a decent news organizaton in my opinion, as they tend to report things that not only anger our government but also the arab governments. I too saw the documentary Control Room and I think you should watch it too to get a better idea of their organization.

For one thing, they are not the only medium for terrorists. The Nick Berg did not appear first on Al Jazeera- I think US media got it first. And most of the tapes and pictures I hear about are put on private web sites. So maybe you should lobby for the Internet to be taken away instead of Al Jazeera.

 

[3chordcharlie]

He isn't lobbying for it to be taken away. He asked if people thought it should be. I think the consensus answer would be 'No'.

Censorship rarely accomlishes its goal; it tends to simply add an element of danger and mystique to something, and may increase both interest and acceptance of the censored source. The people of the middle east can figure things out for themselves; there's no need to remove a news source, whatever its perceived bias.

I don't advocate removing Fox from the airwaves in North America, though I'll admit I usually don't put too much weight on the opinions expressed in their programming.

 

[Kipper]

If Al-Jazeera goes off the airwaves we will have access to almost no alternative views and press reports. Everything will be the same recycled half-truth-laden crap which the American media (conservative, liberal, I don't give a crap whatever) shoves down our throats.

 

[GrGr]

If you ask me much of what is shown on Al Jazeera should be shown in the US as well. The Iraqi conflict is far too "sanitized" in US media as it is.

Al Jazeera had cameras present in Fallujah when US military "collaterally damaged" more than 500 (some say over 700) civilians. Some of that footage should have been shown in the US, maybe that would help Americans understand Arab outrage.

 

[Alistar7]

Originally posted by: MadCowDisease
If Al-Jazeera goes off the airwaves we will have access to almost no alternative views and press reports. Everything will be the same recycled half-truth-laden crap which the American media (conservative, liberal, I don't give a crap whatever) shoves down our throats.

You can read the newspapers from around the globe online, Iraq has plenty of free press right now....

 

[judasmachine]

I think they are the Fox News of the Muslim World.

 

[chrisms]

They are biased in the same way our American news outlets are biased. I see nothing wrong with Al-Jazeera.

 

[judasmachine]

Originally posted by: chrisms
They are biased in the same way our American news outlets are biased. I see nothing wrong with Al-Jazeera.

My sentiments exactly!