Al Jazeera English Service is better television than CNN International and BBC World put together. Last year I had occasion to compare all three watching Thai cable TV. 52 channels with 10 in English. The “presenters” on al Jazeera aren’t any more overtly anti-American than on the other two stations, and since I had no expectations of objectivity from them it took less effort on my part to watch them with a sceptical eye. I think on some level many Americans still retain vestiges of the old “it’s on TV it must be true” attitude. I know I do. I can get over it, but it takes a little effort on my part which I am not always up to mustering when I voluntarily plop my ass in front of the boob tube and allow others to inject images into my brain.
Al Jazeera is most definitely a player in global information, and not necessarily always for the dark side. Judge for yourself.
UPDATE: Does Al Jazeera Belong in the USA? In fact, Israel’s top cable company is dropping CNN to add AJE to its lineup. After striking a deal with YouTube, AJE has also strengthened its Web presence. Its website receives about 4 million-5 million visits per week, with an estimated 50%-60% of them originating in the USA.
Does USATODAY read this blog?
Civilian Irregular Information Defense Group 
All I get is a redirect towards the AJ profile on youtube.
Hmmm. It plays for me. Try http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jCUeUNbnQE
“Al Jazeera is most definitely a player in global information, and not necessarily always for the dark side. Judge for yourself.”
Bear in mind AJ is the modus of many AQ “press releases” and hasn’t exactly clamored to shed light on the who or from aspect of any of bin Laden or al Zawahiri’s “deep thoughts diaries.”
With that said, I’ll now watch the video and after my pathetic system vomits itself into non-functionality will reboot and speak directly about the above embedded video.
Seems to be AJ “West.” I’d posit that what we see from Aj and what the Arab world sees are markedly different. The above is a rather balanced report. What I’ve seen of AJ’s reports in the ME is hardly balanced. Especially when it concerns Israel.
That bit aside, the presence of a more moderate (honest) aspect of AJ is a hopeful development.
I’ve watched AJ in Arabic and I don’t speak that language but the visuals were professionally done. No doubt what they say in Arabic is completely different from what they say in English, but is that taqqiyah or playing to their target audience?
I don’t believe they are are balanced. I just find it easier to remember their bias when I watch. Listening to their “every facet, every side” version of “fair and balanced” helps.
It’s my conviction that both BBC and CNN got far, far worse in their bias and anti Americanism when Al Jazeera came on the scene. There’s definitely some form of perverse ‘competition’ there …
Hey, Cassandra. CNN International I had never seen until March of 2005. It is different from the CNN Americans see. Al Jazeera is eating BBC World’s lunch if you ask me. All three of these media organizations are seen by billions of people and by deciding what stories to tell and what spin to put on them they have incredible power to shape perceptions.
It won’t be long until Americans can get all the English-language news there is, on their computers, and the rest of the world can get what the Americans watch, and everyone will be free to receive information from whatever source fits their ideology and live in their own concept of reality.
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