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Egypt shuts down Al Jazeera bureau

english.aljazeera.net

81–90 of 104 posts

Re: Egypt shuts down Al Jazeera bureau

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a tad bit of hogwash. PBS and NPR are not neutral parties. They have to appeal to viewership just like everyone else. They ask for donations and corporate sponsorship.

I think you can see the difference in their appeal, however. NPR and PBS need to attract enough viewers to keep their programs going, which are made fairly cheaply. The BBC and CBC are government-funded, and have never really operated with an eye towards profitability. You can argue that they aren't objective news sources, but the quality of the news they provide is still much better than on the big US networks.

Not being for-profit doesn't mean there's a lack of budget concerns. BBC World Service will be cutting around 650 people over the next few years. Let's hope they can still provide high quality service.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12283356

PBS stations have been having a tougher time than in the past. Costs are rising, they've lost some of their audience to the greater variety of things people view on cable and the net, and many viewers are being tighter with their money.

Even when all sources are truthful, perspectives and emphasis differ. It's good to have a variety of sources available.

A number of international news networks including Aljazeera English are carried on MHz WorldView. It's seen on some cable systems, carried by some public tv stations over the air (often as an added digital sub-channel that many not be on their cable line up) and on direct tv. They can also be seen streamed on demand to those with ROKU.

http://www.mhznetworks.org/roku/

http://proweb.myersinfosys.com/week.php?timezone=0&stati...

Re: Egypt shuts down Al Jazeera bureau

#82
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an Israeli I was really hoping Hacker News could be the one online forum where I didn't have to hear generalizations about my country's right to exist. I respect your opinion and I'm sure there's more complexity and historical awareness to mutually discuss, but please keep the snarky one-liners to Reddit.

Repeating this, once again: Criticism of the Israeli government's policies is not antisemitic. Criticism of the Israeli government's policies does not question Israel's right to exist. One should not blindly support one's government. We all know how that turned out in Europe in the 30s.

[deleted]

Re: Egypt shuts down Al Jazeera bureau

#83
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an Israeli I was really hoping Hacker News could be the one online forum where I didn't have to hear generalizations about my country's right to exist. I respect your opinion and I'm sure there's more complexity and historical awareness to mutually discuss, but please keep the snarky one-liners to Reddit.

Repeating this, once again: Criticism of the Israeli government's policies is not antisemitic. Criticism of the Israeli government's policies does not question Israel's right to exist. One should not blindly support one's government. We all know how that turned out in Europe in the 30s.

Criticism of the Israeli government's policies is not antisemitic.

What? No one said that. Is this like a knee-jerk response or something? Truly shameful.

Re: Egypt shuts down Al Jazeera bureau

#84
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Have you seen anything of Al Jazeera? probably not. Please do not make any assumptions about me, I have seen plenty. For example, when al-J threw a birthday party to Samir Kuntar and called him a hero. Samir Kuntar is a guy who was doing time in Israel for killing a 4-year old girl by bashing her head with a rock. > Al-Jazeera always interviews people from the Israeli side (and they get a lot of heat for it). You'r…

See, the thing is, you're obviously biased towards Israel and you're endorsing the Israeli side of the story. Now, I don't know anything about this guy, but clearly the Lebanese side of the story is that he's a resistance figure. > You're comparing guys like Samir Kuntar to Israeli government ministers? No, you are. You're also implying the Israeli government ministers are "the good guys", which they are not. To put…

See, the thing is, you're obviously biased towards Israel and you're endorsing the Israeli side of the story. Now, I don't know anything about this guy, but clearly the Lebanese side of the story is that he's a resistance figure.

You're both a little wrong and right here. The grandparent is right that journalists shouldn't be outright supporting viewpoints. He's also correct that it's generally agreed that Samir Kuntar was responsible for several deaths in his orchestrated kidnapping of an Israeli family (Wikipedia, I had never heard of this incident before this conversation).

However, the Al Jazeera network head then admitted that the behavior of the Beirut office was wholly inappropriate and should never happen again.

Re: Egypt shuts down Al Jazeera bureau

#85
post #35

Around a month ago a good journalist friend of mine was taken prisoner in Algiers because of his reporting. After a few days of heavy pressure from the embassy he was released unharmed. A lot of friends were worried and continually asked if he was OK and whether his profession was really worth it. I congratulated him on his new status as a real grown-up journalist, whose reporting was so good that he scared regimes e…

Yesterday they had a brief mention claiming that there was information posted to Wikileaks showing that the U.S. was behind the protesters, but none of their earlier reporting had made any suggestion of a connection. Most reporting is solid. Once in a while they'll say something that's a bit out there, and some might have issue with their use of "reconstruction" (shown in tiny font on screen) for video simulating the negotiations. There were cases were actors spoke dialog, yet the reporter later said the actual text of that particular conversation wasn't known.

Their release of information from the Palestine Papers initially was accurate but unbalanced by omission. They showed concessions without showing what the Palestinians would get. They later had an interview with Martin Indyk, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel during the Clinton administration, who protested that they didn't show the information in perspective by failing to mention that Palestine was to get the sought after separate state status, along with some territory from the Israel side to compensate for loss of some developed areas. When added to access corridor area, the amount gained equaled what was lost. It was pretty clear they'd had him on just to validate the papers, and hurried / talked over him some when he raised these issues, but they deserve credit for still airing it. They do a lot of good reporting, but as always it's wise to compare reports from a number of sources. I'm curious how that interview came across when translated for their Arab-language coverage or if it was included.

In addition to Aljazeera English, MHz Worldview carries broadcasts from Japan, Israel, France, Germany, Russia, Taiwan and some others. The Russian one comes across as the most propaganda oriented with them going out of their way to emphasize things, often misleadingly, that cast the U.S. in a negative light. They say things like NBC won't report stories because G.E. is a defense contractor and G.E. leaked massive amounts of PCBs into the Hudson river (Which they did, but in 1977 and earlier, long before they bought RCA/NBC) They find plenty of quotes from people that give the wrong impression (They used one of John McCain in 2008 to make it look like the U.S. supported those that make have attacked their airport. That tone was gone later, but they quick to throw out negative comments)

The combination of most of the international sources on MHz WorldView, the BBC, and PBS Newshour seems to cover most things pretty well. The two that seem to work to twist things fairly often are Fox and RT (the Russian service), with the remainder of the U.S. networks just not giving much time/depth to a great many issues that matter.

If one gets past the negative tone, the Russian service does point out things other media skips, like the lock down due to the missing nerve agent at the Dugway miltary testing grounds in Utah a few days ago. (the place that released an airborne toxin years ago killing thousands of animals 30 miles away) They also immediately covered the release of the U.S. Financial Crisis Investigative Report a few days ago. They make quite a fuss over U.S. human rights issues, pointing out the the U.S. and Sudan are the only U.N. members failing to sign on with never giving children life sentences or execution for serious crimes. The eerie part is that facts generally check out. It's too bad they make so many poorly founded negative conclusions and report few positive developments.

http://www.mhznetworks.org/mhzworldview/

Re: Egypt shuts down Al Jazeera bureau

#86
post #36

While this is a really bad sign, another really bad sign is they are flying F-16s low over civilian crowds right now, for no other reason than to intimidate them. Just saw it on CBS and it's pretty freaky and scary. I'm starting to think this is going to end really really badly. Are democratic revolutions even possible anymore today, given the technology and sheer firepower the small number in power can wield against…

Isn't it likely that the F16s are up for reconnaissance? Any time there's a touch of trouble here (in Belfast), there's invariably several helicopters over head. Nowadays these are normally small police helicopters, but up until a few years ago heavier military helicopters were common. I imagine that a plane would be preferable in a bigger city such as Cairo, especially if the protests are spread out.

No one uses F-16s for crowd reconnaissance. You'd be much better off with a few helicopters, which can hover over a problem spot, or any of the variety of fixed-wing aircraft specifically designed for it - good downwards visibility, low stall speed, etc.

Re: Egypt shuts down Al Jazeera bureau

#87
post #73
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

David Frost, while not American, has had a show on Al Jazeera English since 2006: http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/frostovertheworld/

David Frost, while not American Every american should know David Frost, if they don't they're not american.

Do true Scotsmen know about David Frost as well?

Re: Egypt shuts down Al Jazeera bureau

#88
post #68
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The English arm of Al Jazeera is based in Washington DC

AJE is headquartered in Doha with broadcasting centers in Doha, London, and Washington.

source http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/01/28/dahl_...

Re: Egypt shuts down Al Jazeera bureau

#89
post #23
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can see some people saying they are being shut down because they are supporters of radical Islam but from what I've seen of them this is pure nonsense. "pure nonsense" is exactly what it is :) The only reason it seems that way from the western perspective is because: 1) They interview Islamist figures 2) They don't portray them as evil But they also interview people from every color of the political spectrum. > g…

"When you're young, you look at television and think, There's a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that's not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That's a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give peo…

I encourage you to see the documentary "Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media".

The whole thing is on Google Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5631882395226827730...

(Better yet, read Chomsky's book on which the documentary is based, "Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media".)

Re: Egypt shuts down Al Jazeera bureau

#90
post #7
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this is not true about other news bureaus, this says a lot about Al Jazeera.

Part of the reason for actions against Al Jazeera are because of where it is and where it focuses on. The BBC and CNN are Western-based media, and they toe the line when it comes to western media principles so dictators know what to expect. For Al Jazeera, it's based in an Arab state, focuses on the Arab and North African world and many of these countries are either in a state of dictatorship or are relatively unstab…

Actually just to be clear and to make sure I don't sound like an ignorant European with some sort of MSM superiority complex, the British media is also pretty bad. The BBC is not exactly completely impartial - compare coverage of the BP oil spill on the BBC to CNN and you'll see some obvious differences.

In the UK we get BBC News, Sky News (owned by the same guy that owns Fox, and just as fair and balanced), Russia Today (which is hilarious to watch sometimes because of the blatant pro-russian bias) and Al-Jazeera, as well as some minor news programmes on other channels. All of them have their own bias to at least some extent, some greater, some worse. The trick is spotting where the bias lies and compensating for it.

It's even worse with newspapers here in the UK - have a look at http://tabloid-watch.blogspot.com/

Of course, the most transparent newspaper in the UK appears to be the Daily Sport. They don't really care about news, just sport and topless women. (http://www.sundaysport.com/ - warning, NSFW)

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