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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?

#131

Post by ashconnor »

gaius wrote: post #121
varjag wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you see, everyone has problems with BBC. Israeli think it's anti-Israel, Putin says it's anti-Russian. In reality though it's simply not pro-Israel or pro-Russian. Just telling the truth infuriates lots of people.

It is possible to be both anti-Israel and anti-Russian, y'know. The idea that the BBC is any more "truthy" than any other news source is laughable; they're all run by humans after all. And the BBC recruits most of its staff through one route, the media section in the Guardian, which no-one would claim is anything other than a left-wing paper. It could, for example, balance it out by recruiting 50% via the Graun's big…

>It could, for example, balance it out by recruiting 50% via the Graun's big rival, the Daily Mail, but it doesn't.

I don't think hiring through a tabloid newspaper would help the integrity of the company. You could have at least said the Telegraph.

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

#132

Post by MichaelSalib »

jacobmg wrote: post #70
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.

Which television news network in the US has had better coverage of the Egypt protests than Al Jazeera? I mean, MSNBC and CNN are using the Al Jazeera feed for their coverage in some cases....

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

#133

Post by gaius »

ashconnor wrote: post #131
gaius wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is possible to be both anti-Israel and anti-Russian, y'know. The idea that the BBC is any more "truthy" than any other news source is laughable; they're all run by humans after all. And the BBC recruits most of its staff through one route, the media section in the Guardian, which no-one would claim is anything other than a left-wing paper. It could, for example, balance it out by recruiting 50% via the Graun's big…

>It could, for example, balance it out by recruiting 50% via the Graun's big rival, the Daily Mail, but it doesn't. I don't think hiring through a tabloid newspaper would help the integrity of the company. You could have at least said the Telegraph.

The Mail is as far to the right as the Graun is to the left, the Torygraph is centre-right. Not to mention that the Graun is s tabloid now...

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

#134

Post by varjag »

gaius wrote: post #121
varjag wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you see, everyone has problems with BBC. Israeli think it's anti-Israel, Putin says it's anti-Russian. In reality though it's simply not pro-Israel or pro-Russian. Just telling the truth infuriates lots of people.

It is possible to be both anti-Israel and anti-Russian, y'know. The idea that the BBC is any more "truthy" than any other news source is laughable; they're all run by humans after all. And the BBC recruits most of its staff through one route, the media section in the Guardian, which no-one would claim is anything other than a left-wing paper. It could, for example, balance it out by recruiting 50% via the Graun's big…

Right. They are also taking turns at being anti-Sudanese, anti-Iranian, anti-Indian and anti-US. Just pick your preference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_BBC

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

#135

Post by ashconnor »

gaius wrote: post #133
ashconnor wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It could, for example, balance it out by recruiting 50% via the Graun's big rival, the Daily Mail, but it doesn't. I don't think hiring through a tabloid newspaper would help the integrity of the company. You could have at least said the Telegraph.

The Mail is as far to the right as the Graun is to the left, the Torygraph is centre-right. Not to mention that the Graun is s tabloid now...

The Guardian is not a tabloid newspaper. The Telegraph is a broadsheet.

The Guardian is also not as far left as the Mail is right, although that is objective and could be debated all day.

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

#136

Post by detokaal »

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."

Yes.

To imply that the media has no influence on the general mass of population is ignorant at best. There is a reason most governments censor the media, seed the media with favorable information or outright ban them: they move people to action.

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

#137

Post by eschulte »

CountSessine wrote: post #9

It's surprising just how good a new source Al Jazeera is. I wish my cable operator let me subscribe to Al Jazeera in lieu of CNN.

then call your cable provider and ask that Al Jazeera be added to the lineup, if they get enough of these requests they will act on them, the only question is how much is enough

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

#138

Post by nir »

MichaelSalib wrote: post #90
nir wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Putting aside the completely unsourced FUD in your comment, clearly MEMRI does have an agenda. Personally I rarely visit that site and wouldn't get my news from it. But my question was why would you consider a network that is openly financed by Qatar objective, and an organization that is not financed by Israel "Israeli PR"?

Putting aside the completely unsourced FUD in your comment Which of my claims are you questioning? My question was why would you consider a network that is openly financed by Qatar objective, and an organization that is not financed by Israel "Israeli PR"? I think Al Jazeera is relatively objective (compared to other news networks) because they often include people with opposing views on their shows. Beyond that, I d…

>Which of my claims are you questioning?

The scare quotes around "ex-" colonel, the "refuses to disclose funding" - and now "how do you know that MEMRI isn't financed by Israel?"

How would I know? Officially they only accept money from private sources. MediaTransparency confirms it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East_Media_Research_Inst...) but maybe they're fooling everyone. I certainly can't verify this.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera is openly funded by Qatar and you claim it's a good news source. So the mere possibility that MEMRI is funded by a government disqualifies it, while the known fact Al Jazeera is funded by a govt is fine. How come?

In any case, once again, I DO NOT consider MEMRI quality journalism. The argument here isn't MEMRI vs Al Jazeera, it's thinking independently vs. news consumerism. My point is that AJ fans, much like FOX fans, simply choose a source the confirms what they want to believe. I would recommend reading many sources, and automatically believing none.

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

#139

Post by [deleted] »

ashconnor wrote: post #135
gaius wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Mail is as far to the right as the Graun is to the left, the Torygraph is centre-right. Not to mention that the Graun is s tabloid now...

The Guardian is not a tabloid newspaper. The Telegraph is a broadsheet. The Guardian is also not as far left as the Mail is right, although that is objective and could be debated all day.

[deleted]

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

#140

Post by ajays »

tkahn6 wrote: post #59
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…

> when Al Jazeera started, the staff was almost entirely made up of BBC MiddleEast service people. And many people believe that the BBC is biased when it comes to covering Israel. For example: http://honestreporting.com/bbc-responds-to-flotilla-inquiry-...

That may be; but the point is: no one is calling for banning the same BBC here (in the US). Here we accept BBC with open arms, NPR and PBS carry BBC news. I was calling out this double-standard.
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