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Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

nytimes.com

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Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#111

Post by tome »

phillipamann wrote: post #41

I'm sorry but why do people love a news organization that is funded by Qatar? People claim that they were completely separate but they weren't at all and gripped by controversy that one would expect from an organization based out of Qatar [1]. I think there are better sources for American and global news than what is essentially the media arm for the corrupt and fascist government of Qatar. [1] https://pmcdeadline2.f…

Knowing very little about what AJA actually broadcast but knowing quite a lot about the Qatari regime I can't help thinking that AJA were not the least biased TV news outlet in the States, but rather the one whose bias was least perceptible to the well-educated, relatively young, slightly liberal-leaning, frequenters of HN.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#112

Post by mahouse »

alsetmusic wrote: post #71
gardano wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might be an urban myth; however, when we were travelling in Europe a few years ago, my Argentine wife just laughed and laughed when she saw a car "Pajero", which in Argentina means "wanker"…

One of the biggest names in tech changed the branding for a service in certain markets where the English title translated into profanity. It's the responsible move if you're operating globally. Apologies for ambiguity, but this is a case where I can't be any more specific.

The Pajero is called Montero in several countries, which include the Spanish-speaking ones.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#113

Post by manachar »

roymurdock wrote: post #43
curun1r wrote: post #9

It's a sad commentary on the state of America's appetite for intelligent analysis when serious journalism can't compete with attractive talking heads ignorantly spouting talking points. Obama may have said that the increased political rancor was one of the greatest regrets of his presidency, but I think this points to how little of that was attributable to him. Though I'd be willing to bet that their name was half th…

More of a commentary on the appetite of the average cable consumer. I imagine their online business will see an uptick as they do more streaming content and (hopefully) continue to publish interesting pieces and documentaries, especially on the ME, that are hard to find elsewhere.

I don't think the internet is any better. Sure, it can sustain some pockets of awesome journalism, but sites specializing in clickbait are the most prevalent.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#115

Post by abalone »

learc83 wrote: post #82
Someone1234 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to be clear I never said RT wasn't a government mouthpiece. I said that some US news is "as bad as" them. I have no idea how exactly it works with CBS/NBC/60 minutes. Does the US government literally write the words? Do they just dictate what they should report on? Do they send them pre-produced bottled reports? It is unclear, but what is clear is the ultimate result: pure dripping pro-US government propaganda o…

I don't think we are watching the same news at all. CBS and NBC regularly have reports that the government would stop if they could. >I said that some US news is "as bad as" them. I've seen plenty of reports on NBC or CBS criticizing Obama (or Bush before him), have you ever seen a report that was critical of Putin on RT? How would this even work. Do they switch stories depending on who is in power?

There is a saying.. We in the USA have one party, the Business Party, with two right wings.

The Democrat-Republican spectrum spans the spectrum of opinion that is fundable by the business community. There is plenty of vigorous debate within that spectrum. But money wins elections and funds advertising-dependent media, so that's how non business friendly perspectives get filtered out.

It's not a conspiracy, it's more "unnatural selection" by money in the media and political systems.

The working class press of a century ago had a much broader spectrum of opinion, for example. But it didn't rely on advertising.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#116

Post by ck2 »

ConceptJunkie wrote: post #102
ck2 wrote: post #52

Every time there is news somehow connected to Gore, I can't help but think somewhere in a parallel universe, the supreme court stayed out of election politics, didn't hand the election to Bush instead of Gore then 9/11 never happened the following year because he actually paid attention to the memo about "Bin Laden determined to strike in US" - then Iraq was never invaded - then the TSA was never created - Gitmo wasn…

It would be a lot different, but in that same universe, the entire population of the Earth was killed by a virus spread by unicorn poop, so be glad it didn't happen.

You consider a couple votes by the supreme court changing everything to fairy tales?

It really, seriously, could have been in favor of Gore. Not far fetched at all.

In fact they could have declined to hear the case entirely, which they probably should have done.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#117

Post by mahouse »

icebraining wrote: post #39
Huggernaut wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nova failing in Latin America is a bit of a myth, though a good apocryphal story to get the point across. http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp

That story always sounded off. I have to admit I mostly listen to European Spanish, but "Nova" doesn't really read like "no va", the intonation is very different.

No it is not. The only difference is which syllable is stressed.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#118

Post by mahouse »

rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #16

This comes as absolutely no surprise at all. It doesn't matter if you are the most accurate, informed, respectable news source in the world, because almost no Americans know what Al Jazeera is, and the name evokes the image backdrop of a middle eastern city most Americans can't find on a map, discussing topics of primary interest to American Muslims and few else, while the female anchors are veiled. Not to mention it…

I bet the Al Jazeera logo is hard to sell in the US for a reason.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#119

Post by United857 »

yellowstuff wrote: post #77
Someone1234 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> RT is propaganda run by a government that has propaganda as its modus operendi; I wouldn't trust their weather reports. So like NBC nightly news? The US is full of what can only be described as US government propaganda, 60 minutes is a prime example. CBS and NBC are no better than RT unfortunately, they just often tell Americans what they want to hear so nobody bats an eyelid. AJ and BBC have their biases but at le…

I don't know a good way to prove that US media is not a government mouthpiece, but I don't think there is much evidence to support such a strong claim, whereas it is pretty easy to argue that RT is a government mouthpiece. EG: http://www.spectator.co.uk/2014/12/the-truth-about-russia-to...

Not directly -- but the networks depend on the government to give them all-important access to events (press conferences, interviews, etc). Report something the government doesn't like? Next time, you'll be the one that's shut out from the next White House press briefing.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#120

Post by No1 »

brightball wrote: post #86
rogerbinns wrote: post #7

The article did not mention Al Jazeera deciding to remove their Internet streaming, and requiring that you can only view via your local cable provider. See this page with the big note to US people: http://www.aljazeera.com/watch_now/201146152255537258.html I used to check in on their coverage on the Roku channel, but they made a business decision to prevent that. I can understand their decision to make their success…

Whenever people talk about the money in college football right now, I generally tell them to blame Tivo (and subsequently Netflix). Tivo started it with the ability to record and watch later while fast forwarding through commercials. Netflix with it's mountains of commercial free content followed next. That put a huge advertising premium on content that people NEED to watch live like sports or hit shows like Walking…

> It's just a question of scalability that gets complicated if millions of people all want to watch the same thing at the exact same time.

That's a nice use case for multicast. Worked for me over a decade ago. I can only assume the technology has gotten better since.

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