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Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

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Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#61

Post by nir »

ahendriksen wrote: post #38
berntb wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>There is a large subset of the US population that would distrust any information from an Arabic source. There are reasons for that. For example, the state controlled/censored media in the muslim world are infamous for antisemitic hate mongering. (State sanctioned racism... what does that remind you of?) A second problem is that I have no idea about the spin in Al Jazeera (except for their host country). Does anyone…

MEMRI is a Israeli non-profit organisation to "aid the understanding of the Middle-East". It is not by any means objective. Its goal is mostly to find inflammatory or antisemitic fragments in Middle Eastern media and provide them to a Western audience. I looked at the fragment on the MEMRI site and it was devoid of any context. Airing a speech does not imply endorsement. (Most, if not all, American media outlets have…

Actually, MEMRI is an American non-profit, which in principle doesn't accept financing from any government ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East_Media_Research_Inst...):

Apparently the mere inclusion of Israelis (I recognize 3 Israeli names out of the 7 listed in its staff page) is enough to label it "Israel's PR department".

Al Jazeera, on the other hand, have received so far over $160m from the Emir of Qatar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jazeera#Organization) - yet many commenters here seem to think that doesn't influence its coverage at all.

Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#62

Post by sad_hacker »

rospaya wrote: post #51

Note that CNN International is a class better than CNN that you watch in the US. They carry less opinion and showbiz and more news and business, although go in-depth only in rare shows. I used to switch between CNN and BBC in the 90s because of the great correspondent network they both had.

I'm not an American and I watch International version of CNN and I don't have any bad word against them.. I also watch Al Jazeera and BBC.

Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#63

Post by jacobmg »

teyc wrote: post #55
jacobmg wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Are you implying that anyone criticizing Israel should be automatically discarded on the basis of intolerance? You don't seem to have listened. It wasn't about that one article, it was about their coverage of the issue, which is skewed in one obvious direction. And by the way, the article is nothing more than a bunch of anecdotes misrepresented as an accurate representation of the issue (the article itself even ack…

Jacob, are you in Israel? Would you care to shed some perspective? For instance, are the races segregated? Are children taught to distrust other races? Are they taught all peoples are equal?

Just an American here, but there is no racial segregation or systematized racism of any kind in Israel. 'Racism' and 'Apartheid' are just thrown around carelessly at Israel by some critics.

Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#64

Post by srean »

mambodog wrote: post #57
ajays wrote: post #56

Every time Al Jazeera is brought up, people claim that it is anti-semitic, racist, anti-US, etc. But to that I say: so what? Do you think Americans are that stupid that they won't see antisemitism? Do you think we're little children who can't think for ourselves? As the old adage goes, "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer". If Al Jazeera is indeed "the enemy", then all the more reason to make Al Jazeera…

As I mentioned below, I find it disingenuous that people often use the term 'anti-semitic' when they mean 'anti-Israel', as if any judgement on the actions of the state of Israel automatically implies hate of Jewish people.

Not only that. Jewish people are not the only Semites. Arabs are Semites too. The word anti-semitic has totally lost all of its literal meaning, much like the word hacker.

Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#66

Post by jacobmg »

mambodog wrote: post #57
ajays wrote: post #56

Every time Al Jazeera is brought up, people claim that it is anti-semitic, racist, anti-US, etc. But to that I say: so what? Do you think Americans are that stupid that they won't see antisemitism? Do you think we're little children who can't think for ourselves? As the old adage goes, "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer". If Al Jazeera is indeed "the enemy", then all the more reason to make Al Jazeera…

As I mentioned below, I find it disingenuous that people often use the term 'anti-semitic' when they mean 'anti-Israel', as if any judgement on the actions of the state of Israel automatically implies hate of Jewish people.

Not all criticism of Israel is anti-Jewish, but some can be. Just because someone claims an anti-Israel group is anti-Jewish, don't assume that they would whitewash all Israel critics as anti-Jewish.

Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#67

Post by jacobmg »

ajays wrote: post #56

Every time Al Jazeera is brought up, people claim that it is anti-semitic, racist, anti-US, etc. But to that I say: so what? Do you think Americans are that stupid that they won't see antisemitism? Do you think we're little children who can't think for ourselves? As the old adage goes, "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer". If Al Jazeera is indeed "the enemy", then all the more reason to make Al Jazeera…

>Do you think Americans are that stupid that they won't see antisemitism? Do you think we're little children who can't think for ourselves?

Well that's the thing, perhaps those who have had the opportunity to carry Al Jazeera decided not to on the prediction that it would not be watched, and decided to avoid any financial loss by not taking the risk.

>Plus: when Al Jazeera started, the staff was almost entirely made up of BBC MiddleEast service people. So while they worked for BBC, they were unbiased; but the moment they started working for AJ, they became biased and completely untrustworthy!!

No one ever said the BBC was immune from being biased. You're right, it's unlikely that the same people automatically went from being non-biased to biased, so if Al-Jazeera is biased, that just means the BBC had been biased all along.

Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#68

Post by knowledgesale »

Luc wrote: post #4
spooneybarger wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever I try, it barely works and usually crashes. Right now, barely works would be a kind description. The stations I get via cable/sat tv etc don't have scaling problems of this sort. They might have crap coverage and you could argue that is a scaling issue of some sort but.. at least I can manage to watch.

They use Brightcove. It's rock solid for me (in Belgium), and better video quality than the BBC feed.

are you saying you can watch bbc online?

Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#69

Post by araneae »

spot wrote: post #41
araneae wrote: post #2

They can. http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

You are reading the title too literally. They just left off "on TV" because it's obvious from context.

You are reading the comment too literally. It was more of an "FYI" than a rebuttal.

Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#70

Post by jacobmg »

getsat wrote: post #19

There is a large subset of the US population that would distrust any information from an Arabic source. BBC, Reuters, and Al Jazeera are amazing compared to CNN/MSNBC/FOX.

PBS is a better fit to be compared to BBC. You can find low-brow entertainment based news in the UK and every other country with a free media. It's not like you can't access quality news in the US and Al Jazeera has to swoop in and save the day.
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