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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

#271

Post by mikeash »

gotchange wrote: post #268
mikeash wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Albuquerque is a pretty tenuous example. Anyway, I don't know. I'm not talking about me, just saying this is how a lot of people react.

No, it's not tenuous. Americans (Spanish settlers/Mexicans?) imported the name from Spanish (Castellano) and Spanish got it from Arabic and the list I made is just arbitrary and there are many many more Arabic origin words starting with "Al" that made their way to English and don't seem to have the same negative effect on the English speaker as claimed by you and the other poster.

The etymology is not certain, but Albuquerque looks much more likely to be Latin than Arabic.

As for the rest, well, there's a difference between English words with Arabic origins and Arabic words that haven't been appropriated into English.

You can dislike the way people treat it all you want, and say it makes no sense (and I'd agree), but if you argue with how it works then you're basically yelling at the clouds.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#272

Post by pessimizer »

wyclif wrote: post #241
g8oz wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's more accurate to say that the BBC is disliked by the newer Hindu nationalist types for not pandering to their world view.

I think it's more accurate to say that the BBC is disliked by lots of people are aren't culturally Marxist. BBC is fine for left-leaning Anglosphere types, but it's not very broad in terms of the views covered.

"culturally Marxist" sounds like a right-wing way of saying "not Marxist." It makes about as much sense as being "culturally vegetarian."

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#273

Post by freehunter »

gotchange wrote: post #268
mikeash wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Albuquerque is a pretty tenuous example. Anyway, I don't know. I'm not talking about me, just saying this is how a lot of people react.

No, it's not tenuous. Americans (Spanish settlers/Mexicans?) imported the name from Spanish (Castellano) and Spanish got it from Arabic and the list I made is just arbitrary and there are many many more Arabic origin words starting with "Al" that made their way to English and don't seem to have the same negative effect on the English speaker as claimed by you and the other poster.

It's not claimed, its real. Facebook and Twitter have this great thing where you can see into the minds of other people, and Al-Jazeera was trending the other day, so you got to see lots of people talking about it. Lots of hate, literally 100% because the name sounds Arabic.

Hate doesn't care about entomology. We're talking about a country that renamed "french fries" to "freedom fries" to protest one of our oldest allies, when the "fries" aren't even "french" to begin with.

Albuquerque doesn't sound Arabic. Americans are familiar with it, it just sounds funny, maybe Mexican, but it's still in America. Al-Jazeera has an Arabic logo, Arabic anchors, and an Arabic name. These are people who key in on the president's middle name of Hussein and use that to claim he's a Muslim terrorist. You honestly think they wouldn't blink an eye at an Arabic news channel?

People are perhaps a bit more xenophobic than you think they are.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#274

Post by gotchange »

mikeash wrote: post #271
gotchange wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's not tenuous. Americans (Spanish settlers/Mexicans?) imported the name from Spanish (Castellano) and Spanish got it from Arabic and the list I made is just arbitrary and there are many many more Arabic origin words starting with "Al" that made their way to English and don't seem to have the same negative effect on the English speaker as claimed by you and the other poster.

The etymology is not certain, but Albuquerque looks much more likely to be Latin than Arabic. As for the rest, well, there's a difference between English words with Arabic origins and Arabic words that haven't been appropriated into English. You can dislike the way people treat it all you want, and say it makes no sense (and I'd agree), but if you argue with how it works then you're basically yelling at the clouds.

They're are other places in Badajoz with the "AL" prefix and they're Arabic influenced so it's more likely that Albuquerque was as well than being Latin derived but my main argument stays the same that if English speaking xenophobes or bigots have any problem with the Arabic definite article "Al ال", they should cease using those words in their language to avoid public embarrassment and being labelled hypocrites.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#275

Post by cooperellis »

br_smartass wrote: post #217
seanp2k2 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. It can be hard to get a non-US spin on middle eastern events, which is I regularly look to AJ and BBC. The value is in getting a different perspective, not completely unbiased reporting. Associated Press feeds can also be somewhat helpful: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/APNewsFeeds

Yep. There's whole different point of views to be seen. People are saying propaganda like it means only the caricaturization of propaganda(i.e.: overt), and, corollarily, like what is not overt is not propaganda or like it's "but ours is nicer/good". It's not like this, propaganda is everywhere. To me, anything that's not the pure facts plus context is the same as propaganda/ideology, there's only reality or propagan…

I agree, getting multiple perspectives on an issue can be extremely time-consuming and challenging. This site shares three different perspectives on current events in one place: http://pxw.news/whos-to-blame-for-the-iran-saudi-dispute/

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#276

Post by mapt »

unprepare wrote: post #270
mapt wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simple_Example_Cable_Company has 200k subscribers, charges $30/month, and licenses: $10/customer/month to Channel A, which has 100k viewers who only watch it $10/customer/month to Channel B, which also has 100k viewers who only watch it ... In 2018, consumer activists manage to break up SECC and institute an a-la-carte system. In 2019 they can choose to pay $20/customer/month to channel A (which is going to charge en…

20/month is 240$ - for 240$ I can buy a season pass (40$) to 6 individual shows. Unless i want to watch more than 6 of AMCs shows concurrently, its much more expensive to pay 20$/ month. Even including shows that are over, I cant think of 6 successful shows on any single cable network. (walking dead, mad men, breaking bad, better call saul?, talking dead?, ??) On top of this, pricing has already been set and normaliz…

You have succeeded in completely missing the point, by fixating on an arbitrary number while missing the simple principle that the contrived example is meant to illustrate.

If the service remains the same, the total that consumers pay will necessarily have to remain about the same. Instead of getting the freedom to change channels, they'll be stuck with the limited selection they have subscribed to. The bundling business model is a natural best fit for the technology that permits channels to be streamed simultaneously over the same lines; Anything else is a waste for the consumer and for the company.

You guys are chasing illusory discounts: "If I just had to pay $5 to ESPN and I could drop everythng I don't watch..." cannot mathematically happen, because ESPN has to crank up their prices or end most of their production to survive as soon as their customer base drops by 90% due to the end of bundling.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#277

Post by cooperellis »

taurath wrote: post #126
xlm1717 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're trading one filter bubble for another. Unless you want to see how the population of another country experience propaganda, I don't see how it could be useful. You could do critical thinking on any source, not just alternates.

Being able to approach things from many perspectives (even if those perspectives are highly biased, because there does not exist an unbiased perspective in human-gathered news) is very important.

I agree, but getting multiple perspectives on an issue can be extremely time-consuming and challenging. This site shares three different perspectives on current events in one place: http://pxw.news/whos-to-blame-for-the-iran-saudi-dispute/

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#278

Post by mikeash »

gotchange wrote: post #274
mikeash wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The etymology is not certain, but Albuquerque looks much more likely to be Latin than Arabic. As for the rest, well, there's a difference between English words with Arabic origins and Arabic words that haven't been appropriated into English. You can dislike the way people treat it all you want, and say it makes no sense (and I'd agree), but if you argue with how it works then you're basically yelling at the clouds.

They're are other places in Badajoz with the "AL" prefix and they're Arabic influenced so it's more likely that Albuquerque was as well than being Latin derived but my main argument stays the same that if English speaking xenophobes or bigots have any problem with the Arabic definite article "Al ال", they should cease using those words in their language to avoid public embarrassment and being labelled hypocrites.

What's the point of that main argument?

You asked a question about why certain unreasonable feel a certain way, you got an answer, and now you're arguing with the answer because you think it's unreasonable. That's silly.

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#279

Post by legulere »

wyclif wrote: post #241
g8oz wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's more accurate to say that the BBC is disliked by the newer Hindu nationalist types for not pandering to their world view.

I think it's more accurate to say that the BBC is disliked by lots of people are aren't culturally Marxist. BBC is fine for left-leaning Anglosphere types, but it's not very broad in terms of the views covered.

When you use the word cultural marxist you're outing yourself as a right-extremist conspiracy theorist:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_School#Cultural_Marx...

Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April

#280

Post by shasta »

mapt wrote: post #264
MereInterest wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Simple_Example_Cable_Company has 200k subscribers, charges $30/month, and licenses: $10/customer/month to Channel A, which has 100k viewers who only watch it $10/customer/month to Channel B, which also has 100k viewers who only watch it ... In 2018, consumer activists manage to break up SECC and institute an a-la-carte system. In 2019 they can choose to pay $20/customer/month to channel A (which is going to charge en…

Your analysis is all wrong. Not all programming costs the same to make or license and not all people consume the same amount of programming. Your point basically boils down to "those people whose ESPN you are subsidizing are also subsidizing your programming that they might not watch." That's true, but the two don't necessarily cancel out. Sports programming costs a lot to license because there is high demand and there's basically a monopoly.

Non-zero marginal costs would further favor a la carte pricing as it would reduce actual waste, but even with zero marginal cost there is still subsidization.

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