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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

#131

Post by hackuser »

Someone1234 wrote: post #79
yellowstuff wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

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…

> 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 of the worst kind.

They often attack and upset the government, including leaking government secrets and sometimes getting prosecuted for it. I don't think it's at all comparable. Is Fox a mouthpiece for Obama? Was MSNBC a mouthpiece for Bush? The NY Times, to its credit, is criticized by all sides a being on the 'other' side.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#132

Post by taurath »

nikolay wrote: post #114

Al Jazeera and their AJ+ are funded by the Qatar monarchy. I closely monitor their "news" on Facebook, the hidden agenda is so obvious! I think they might be closing down because oil price keeps dropping.

All media has a hidden agenda - its nice to get a different one sometimes, because when you're only exposed to one all the time you start to forget it has an agenda. There are many things not said and topics not covered in US media, the first and foremost being any direct representations of people suffering from US-led military ventures.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#133

Post by eewffwe »

thinkpad20 wrote: post #122
brightball wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> if it weren't for ESPN I'd have no reason to have cable. It's the only reason I have a pay TV package. Yup. Unfortunately, even just getting ESPN (and similar channels like FS1 etc) means buying huge bloated bundles. I'm hopeful this will change in the next couple of years though.

Sling TV. $15 a month (ESPN/ESPN2 are included).

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#134

Post by eewffwe »

peckrob wrote: post #109
brightball wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> The reality for cord cutters and cable companies alike is that, if it weren't for ESPN I'd have no reason to have cable. It's the only reason I have a pay TV package. During college football season I got a Sling subscription solely to watch college football (ESPN and the SEC Network mostly). I never even really used the Sling app much - it's terrible, crashes a lot, and isn't on AppleTV. I just used my Sling accoun…

>isn't on AppleTV

You can use your Sling membership credentials to sign into ESPN's app. The app does not crash from my experience - works a charm.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#135

Post by gardano »

mahouse wrote: post #112
alsetmusic wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The country we were in was Switzerland, if memory serves...

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#136

Post by peckrob »

eewffwe wrote: post #134
peckrob wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The reality for cord cutters and cable companies alike is that, if it weren't for ESPN I'd have no reason to have cable. It's the only reason I have a pay TV package. During college football season I got a Sling subscription solely to watch college football (ESPN and the SEC Network mostly). I never even really used the Sling app much - it's terrible, crashes a lot, and isn't on AppleTV. I just used my Sling accoun…

>isn't on AppleTV You can use your Sling membership credentials to sign into ESPN's app. The app does not crash from my experience - works a charm.

Yup, that's exactly what I was doing. :)

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#137

Post by hackuser »

13thLetter wrote: post #89
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…

It's not so much that the news is a government mouthpiece, more that each network tends to report the news in a fashion that supports its political views: CNN, MSNBC, and the traditional alphabet networks on the left, Fox News on the right. (And, of course, these are American definitions of left and right, so feel free to map them to your nation of origin however you please.) If the network is simpatico to the party…

> CNN, MSNBC, and the traditional alphabet networks on the left

An important point, I think: The propagandists, most prominently today the News Corp outlets such as Fox and the WSJ, want to portray the whole world as ideologically driven. It innoculates their followers against anything anyone else can say (e.g., 'it's all left-wing propaganda, don't even bother') and justifies their own propaganda.

But everyone is not ideological. MSNBC is, at least it was the little I saw of them awhile ago, maybe NPR is, but I disagree that the rest are on the left. They are mostly straight-ahead journalism without significant ideology (though of course nothing is perfect in the world, and I'm omitting the unconcious ideology of the US popular perspective that people like Chomsky observe.)

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#138

Post by aaronkrolik »

>And Al Jazeera America has not been free of controversy in recent months. In November, the news station’s general counsel, David W. Harleston, was suspended following a report in The New York Times that he did not appear to be licensed to practice law. In late December, Al Jazeera aired an hourlong documentary that linked some of the biggest stars in Major League Baseball and the National Football League to performance-enhancing drugs. The most prominent athlete mentioned in the report was the Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning, who angrily denied the report, calling it “complete garbage” and “totally made up.”

Lets not forget that they are being sued for libel

http://deadspin.com/ryan-howard-ryan-zimmerman-sue-al-jazeer...

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#140

Post by verisimilidude »

te wrote: post #124
efuquen wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For $20/month you can get ESPN & ESPN2 and about 20 other channels (Food Network, HGTV, Cartoon Network, Discovery, History Channel are a few of the main ones I use) streamed via Sling TV. For another $5 you can add a few more Sports channels.

Serious question: can I record streams from Sling TV so I can watch on my schedule and skip commercials?

There's no way to skip commercials or record shows. Sling does offer an interesting alternative: each channel is accompanied by an on-demand section of recent broadcasts, meaning you wouldn't need to record anything because it'd already be available for streaming. Sadly, support for this is inconsistent between channels.

I signed up for Sling TV over the summer to help get me through long sleepless nights with a newborn. It's an interesting service but there are lots of little problems like the above. I dropped it around Thanksgiving.

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