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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

#221

Post by learc83 »

abalone wrote: post #204
stvswn wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If money wins elections, can you explain why Jeb Bush isn't polling first in the Republican primary process right now? Can you also explain why Bernie Sanders is within single digits of Clinton nationally, and beating her in Iowa and New Hampshire? You'd expect that the candidates who spend the most (and represent the monied establishment) would do the best, right? Is it possible that there are other forces at play (…

Those are not election wins. We are not even close to the peak of the election cycle where the real money gets spent. There certainly are more forces at play, but money plays the key role.

>There certainly are more forces at play, but money plays the key role.

I don't think money is close to playing the key role. If that were true it would only take a few billion to buy a presidential election.

Money is definitely necessary, but I don't think it's sufficient.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#222

Post by geowwy »

largote wrote: post #166
avn2109 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought Al Jazeera was run at a loss as a propaganda expense by the Qatari government. Is that untrue?

Most of their articles and videos seem to be quite objective. Might be run as a way of raising awareness (every once in a while) of Middle Eastern progress, but I certainly wouldn't call that propaganda.

Their reports on Israel and the Syrian civil war are a very one-sided.

http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/regions/middleeast.html

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#223

Post by dirtytleilaxu »

dublinben wrote: post #15
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…

I can personally attest to the impact of this change. I used to watch their English language coverage, but have not done so since the launch of their cable channel. If this decision means I can stream the international feed from the US again, I won't complain.

It's actually still possible to stream their international feed (AJE) from the US. I'd rather not post how here out of fear something will be changed and it won't work any more, but if you send me an email or reply with some way to send you a couple lines of text I'll set you up.

It's stupid easy, streams straight to VLC.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#224

Post by jack9 »

mapt wrote: post #218
cptskippy wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> an unbunbled or streaming subscriber would need to pay $36 a month for ESPN access for them to generate the same revenue they generate through current cable carriage contracts. ESPN and professional sports are way over valued and forcing everyone to subsidize sports fans. This is literally the reason why people are becoming cord-cutters, they're tired of paying for things they don't want. Right now 1 in 6 cable sub…

"1 in 6 watches it, 6 in 6 pay for it". Except that the marginal cost of providing ESPN service to people who do not watch ESPN is nearly zero. A-la-carte pricing makes sense if the corporation is spending a-la-carte costs, but they're not: the cable hookup and maintenance costs almost the same either way. There are some issues with a cap on the number of channels that can be simultaneously transmitted in a cable pip…

I'm not sure what you mean by "Except" or "You're not paying for the stuff you don't watch, you're paying for what you do watch;"

A la carte that avoids ESPN, doesn't exist from the major providers (it's part of everyone's basic packages but ATT that I have seen). That was the point (6 of 6 pay for it).

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#225

Post by [deleted] »

learc83 wrote: post #172
ZenoArrow wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "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?" Here you go: http://youtu.be/ZolXrjGIBJs

And immediately after she said that RT executives issued statements saying that she was "misled by the American media" and that “In her comment Ms. Martin also noted that she does not possess a deep knowledge of reality of the situation in Crimea." RT then used this one piece of dissent against the normal pro Russia coverage of Crimea to parade around as example of their openness. You'll also notice that less than a…

[deleted]

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#226

Post by [deleted] »

Cyph0n wrote: post #55
hackuser wrote: post #20

This is too bad. They were one of two sources of serious news on cable TV [1] and their global breath of coverage, including many important, original stories I didn't see elsewhere, was exceptional. I always held my breath a little, expecting some propaganda because Al Jazeera is owned by the government of Qatar, but I never noticed any even in Middle East coverage. That doesn't mean it wasn't there - the point of pr…

They do a good job of separating the regional channels from the main one. AJ English is quite different from AJ Arabic that at times I feel it's a different channel entirely. However as an Arab Muslim my goto is AJ Arabic as it focuses on the region and I feel covers important events and causes. It's documentaries and investigative pieces are awesome as well.

[deleted]

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#227

Post by shitgoose »

hackuser wrote: post #32
andrewclunn wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. Moving away from service chord cutters at this point was just odd. Embracing alternative media has done wonders for outlets like Russia Today (Though that's state sponsored so it might not be the best comparison).

> Russia Today (Though that's state sponsored so it might not be the best comparison) Al Jazeera is owned by the government of Qatar. However, I agree with you that it's not a good comparision. BBC also is state sponsored, but generally considered to be trustworthy. RT is propaganda run by a government that has propaganda as its modus operendi; I wouldn't trust their weather reports.

none of the news channels is trustworthy. the difference is in degree of bias. BBC is very biased.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#228

Post by MichaelMoser123 »

hackuser wrote: post #32
andrewclunn wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. Moving away from service chord cutters at this point was just odd. Embracing alternative media has done wonders for outlets like Russia Today (Though that's state sponsored so it might not be the best comparison).

> Russia Today (Though that's state sponsored so it might not be the best comparison) Al Jazeera is owned by the government of Qatar. However, I agree with you that it's not a good comparision. BBC also is state sponsored, but generally considered to be trustworthy. RT is propaganda run by a government that has propaganda as its modus operendi; I wouldn't trust their weather reports.

The BBC is not very objective in its coverage of Israel. http://bbcwatch.org is very critical of the BBC in this respect.

Al Jazeera seems to have a problem with Jews in general ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jazeera_controversies_and... says so ). They also don't like the Shia - not without editorial bias so to speak.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#229

Post by cbd1984 »

abalone wrote: post #115
learc83 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Removed old comment, replaced it with this one:

Here, read this: http://stevedutch.blogspot.com/2014/10/why-are-both-politica...

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#230

Post by MereInterest »

mapt wrote: post #218
cptskippy wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> an unbunbled or streaming subscriber would need to pay $36 a month for ESPN access for them to generate the same revenue they generate through current cable carriage contracts. ESPN and professional sports are way over valued and forcing everyone to subsidize sports fans. This is literally the reason why people are becoming cord-cutters, they're tired of paying for things they don't want. Right now 1 in 6 cable sub…

"1 in 6 watches it, 6 in 6 pay for it". Except that the marginal cost of providing ESPN service to people who do not watch ESPN is nearly zero. A-la-carte pricing makes sense if the corporation is spending a-la-carte costs, but they're not: the cable hookup and maintenance costs almost the same either way. There are some issues with a cap on the number of channels that can be simultaneously transmitted in a cable pip…

The cost of the hookup is just one part of the cost. Licensing fees are also present. A quick Google search finds that for ESPN, these are on the order of $5/customer/month. For someone who doesn't watch ESPN, that is a hefty subsidy compared to that of other networks.

Source:http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/dish-espn-trial-off...

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