Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

salon.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 183 posts

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

#101

Post by endtime »

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…

I agree with the thrust of your comment in general; however, you're mistaken on one point:

>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!!

The BBC is well-known for anti-Israel bias, and there have been investigations to that effect. Here's an article about a long-running legal battle to get the BBC to disclose a report on its ME coverage: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/feb/11/balen-report-bbc...; here's some background info on said report: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balen_Report.

Edit: I honestly don't care about my HN karma, but I am curious to know why this was downvoted. I provided relevant information in a civil manner. I'd really feel better if someone could provide an explanation other than that people are using HN downvotes like reddit downvotes now. :/

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

#102

Post by endtime »

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.

It's obviously not the case that all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic. However, it should be equally obvious that some is; surely the anti-Semites that do exist will criticize Israel. So the question is how to distinguish the legitimate criticism from the anti-Semitic criticism. I don't have an answer to this question, unfortunately. One (flawed) test that's often proposed is to see whether the criticism is proportional to Israel's wrongdoings as compared to the wrongdoings of other countries.

In any case, while I agree with what you're saying, quite often people say pretty much the same thing as a sort of misdirection to deflect criticism of their own criticism of Israel, no matter how unfair or misleading or just plain dishonest it is. If you go read some reddit comments on Israel you'll see anti-Semitism mentioned at least an order of magnitude more frequently by Israel's critics than by Israel's defenders.

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

#103

Post by eli »

noonespecial wrote: post #60

Interesting. I have cox cable in DC, we get Al Jazeera, and it has been most useful. When the gulf oil spill was happening and we wanted to find out what was going on, I turned to CNN only to get 20 minutes on Katy Perry's freakin wardrobe controversy. Al Jazeera to the rescue.

I get it on Comcast in DC too.

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

#105

Post by ComputerGuru »

w1ntermute wrote: post #27
ComputerGuru wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an alternate feed available from livestation in both SD and HD editions. http://www.livestation.com/channels/3-al_jazeera_english And a RealPlayer live stream, which (as much as RealPlayer sucks) may be a better choice than Flash. But it's pretty low-def: http://europe.real.com/smil/aljazeera_us_lo.ram

> as much as RealPlayer sucks No need for RealPlayer. Just get Media Player Classic Home Cinema ( http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/ ) and Real Alternative ( http://www.filehippo.com/download_real_alternative/ ). With that combination, RealMedia streams have become one of my favorites. You can do the same with QuickTime, by getting QuickTime Lite ( http://www.filehippo.com/download_quicktime_alternative/ ).

I don't think they do live streams. I'm on Mac, and usually use VLC to watch RealPlayer files, but I couldn't get to the RealPlay live media (.ram files).

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

#106

Post by srean »

jacobmg wrote: post #96
teyc wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are just making things up.

No, everything claimed is easy to verify. Races aren't segregated, racism isn't taught (as in, it's not part of the curriculum.) All races are equal under Israeli law. Your education on this subject had to have been seriously skewed to think otherwise.

From what I remember from posts on HN by Israeli citizens, but of ethnically non-Jewish background its not quite the clear picture you paint. Leaving aside Palestinian civilians who do not have recourse to the same civic laws and roads as Israeli citizens, Israeli Arabs do not have the same rights even legally (let alone inconsistent application of existing laws) as Jewish citizens. These discrepancies crop up in different spheres of life, from marriage to permit for visiting cities to owning property.

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

#107

Post by ComputerGuru »

jacobmg wrote: post #96
teyc wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are just making things up.

No, everything claimed is easy to verify. Races aren't segregated, racism isn't taught (as in, it's not part of the curriculum.) All races are equal under Israeli law. Your education on this subject had to have been seriously skewed to think otherwise.

Segregation doesn't have to be official and in the written law for it to exist.

Segregation is a real fact in every day Israeli life, as I saw in a 2 year stint from '04 to '06. Since we're talking AlJazeera, here's a recent article on segregation and mixed Israeli-Palestinian couples: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/01/201112...

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

#108

Post by smhinsey »

noonespecial wrote: post #60

Interesting. I have cox cable in DC, we get Al Jazeera, and it has been most useful. When the gulf oil spill was happening and we wanted to find out what was going on, I turned to CNN only to get 20 minutes on Katy Perry's freakin wardrobe controversy. Al Jazeera to the rescue.

By pure coincidence I have it on in the background right now in Arlington. I have FiOS but I assume Comcast has a similarly wide array of news channels. I chalked it up to the area. I've certainly never had it anywhere else I've lived, up and down the East Coast.

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

#109

Post by srean »

endtime wrote: post #101
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…

I agree with the thrust of your comment in general; however, you're mistaken on one point: >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!! The BBC is well-known for anti-Israel bias, and there have been investigations to that effect. Here's an article…

I notice that your comment has been downvoted, so lest you think so, it is not me. I followed your links, and what I found is this: A media corporation refuses to disclose a report on an internal investigation on how it conducts its affairs. Yes, it bothers me that a public service body is stonewalling about an internal report. But when I transfer the setup to US say, it is not what I would call, unheard of.

I am certainly willing to concede, that it is not transparent, but isnt calling them to possess a "well-known" anti-Israel bias exaggerated ?

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

#110

Post by endtime »

srean wrote: post #109
endtime wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with the thrust of your comment in general; however, you're mistaken on one point: >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!! The BBC is well-known for anti-Israel bias, and there have been investigations to that effect. Here's an article…

I notice that your comment has been downvoted, so lest you think so, it is not me. I followed your links, and what I found is this: A media corporation refuses to disclose a report on an internal investigation on how it conducts its affairs. Yes, it bothers me that a public service body is stonewalling about an internal report. But when I transfer the setup to US say, it is not what I would call, unheard of. I am cer…

Well, I was trying to err on the side of caution with my sources, and I may have overdone it. There are more direct articles but from less reputable sources, like this one [1]. I don't know how to justify that something is well-known; Bing has 12 million hits for "bbc anti-israel" (without quotes), if that helps.

BTW, the BBC is a public organization, not a private corporation. It's estimated that they spent 200,000 pounds to keep the report from being disclosed. I don't know why they'd spend that kind of money to hide a report that didn't reveal bias - though I'm open to alternative explanations.

[1] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-451138/Report-BBCs-a...

Post reply on HN