Al-Jazeera will be broadcasted in the United States

It seems that the most watched news program in the Middle East will be trying to establish itself in the United States.

From Free Republic [NB: This is a cut and paste of select sections of the article, so RTFA to learn more]:

Now its executives say they want to launch an English-language news channel from the US, to provide English speakers in the US and elsewhere with more accurate and informed reporting about the world’s most turbulent region.
...
Speaking during a panel discussion organized by the John Hopkins University School of Advance International Studies, SAIS, Chandrasekaran, said: “The US needs to find a more constructive way to deal with Al-Jazeera, which is key to further the US agenda of democracy in the region.”

There are a few important things to keep in mind about Al-Jazeera:
1) This is AlJazeera.NET, NOT Aljazeera.COM, so when you criticize them, criticize the correct one. I will mercilessly pounce on any post that gets this wrong.
2) Most of their journalists are BBC-trained (the BBC tried and failed to set up an Arab outlet.)
3) The were the first to refer to Israel as Israel.
4) They are the only Arab news network that has interviewed Israeli top officials, or even American officials for that matter.
5) They're free to cover whatever story they wish. They very aggresively exercise their freedom, often at their own expense, but they are biased (see below).
6) Investing in Al-Jazeera is a bad idea since they're always losing money. They have no commercials whatsoever. The only way they survive is the money they get from the Emir of Qatar.
7) They're stuck between a rock and a hard place. They're hated by the wahabis (aka fundamentalist Muslims), and quite disliked here.
8) They like controversy. I daresay that they thrive on it, in a way moreso than US news media. I'm willing to bet that their dream is to get the most polar extremes of differing political views together in a room to debate.

That said, I will watch it, if it's available in my area. As with all news, I refuse to take what I've been given at face value. I try to watch all different kinds of networks, from CNN to MSNBC and even (though very painfully) Fox News.

When watching any news media, these points are important to keep in mind:
1) All human institutions are biased, including and especially the news media. The BBC is not an exception to this rule.
2) Don't be intellectually lazy. Think carefully about what you are told and what you see.
3) You have control over the TV. The TV does not have control over you. If you don't like what you're seeing, then turn it off and do something else. Don't know what to do? Then you need to go back to the second point.

The value of this type of News Service here in the United States is that it offers an alternative perspective of what is happening Globally, much as the BBC. I'll take it with a grain of salt.....propaganda aside... it might not be a bad idea!

I hope they have some success here.

It's amazing that the only mainstream news organizaion still willing to ask tough questions and piss people off comes not from the US, much vaunted home of the free press, but from Quatar, a tiny Arab country exploring democracy without benefit of a military "liberation."

Meanwhile our own "free" press timidly and unquestioningly regurgitates White House and Pentagon PR as if it were gospel, too cowed by the myth of the liberal media (and the threat of losing access) to grow a spine and ask tough questions of the people in power.

Al-Jazeera as a broadcast station in the US... just wait for the refrain, "and the liberals rejoice!" It'll take a lot of viewers away from CNN, I suppose. Of course we've been able to get Al-Jazeera for as long as I can remember via satellite, but Al-Jazeera as a "broadcast" (defined as being accessable w/out even basic cable, though I imagine it'd be indeed a cable station) is interesting.

Al-Jazeera will be viewed as nothing more than comedy reality TV
fodder for the late night TV comics. Should be entertaining at best.

Originally posted by FlyersFan
Al-Jazeera will be viewed as nothing more than comedy reality TV
fodder for the late night TV comics. Should be entertaining at best.

As Entertaining as Fox News?

Probably more comedic than even Ted Turner's CommunistNewsNetwork. At least Dan Rather can go back to work.

[edit on 1-4-2005 by AlphaHumana]

The Al-Jazeera network was purchased by the fox news corp not that long ago it happened eariler in the year I will see if I can find my news artical on it.

Falcon

Wasn't that a joke? Especially considering News Corp. would be the one purchasing it (the parent company of Fox, Fox News), they also own media outlets around the world (Sky in the UK, for example, and that one they keep mentioning in Italy about the Pope.)

Originally posted by AlphaHumana
At least Dan Rather can go back to work.

SeeBS castoffs can go work for Al - Jazeera.
Yep. Although ... it would be a step UP for Dan
Rather. I don't know if he could handle the
promotion from SeeBS.

Originally posted by falcon
The Al-Jazeera network was purchased by the fox news corp not that long ago it happened eariler in the year I will see if I can find my news artical on it.

That is what is known as Satire.

www.msnbc.msn.com...

See? right at the top there "Satire"

Al-Jazeera will be about as successful in the US, as the Titanic's first vovage.

Without watching Al-Jazeera myself, it is difficult to determine whether or not the claims against Al-Jazeera are valid or the result of negative propagandizing by the U.S. government. Al-Jazeera broadcasts things that the U.S. mainstream media won't show and the U.S. government doesn't want you to see--but is it biased or just reality?

www.theage.com.au...
www.tbsjournal.com...
www.alternet.org...
archives.cnn.com...

Is Al-Jazeera is "anti-American" because they broadcast news about U.S. casualties, show terrorist messages, and report on international perspectives? Isn't that news?

On the other hand, the fourth estate in the U.S. has become so toothless that news is a function of corporate marketing. Journalists no longer can report news that is deemed to be to "complicated" or controversial. International news is filtered for ratings value--and the consensus is that it has none. (Read Tom Fenton's Bad News: The Decline of Reporting, the Business of News, and the Danger to Us All for more on this...)

Is Al-Jazeera any less credible than CBS, CNN, or FOX? I really don't know--every network has an owner and that bias is reflected in the news that gets on air. I think that it is best to watch for yourself and make your own judgements.

Originally posted by FlyersFan
Al-Jazeera will be viewed as nothing more than comedy reality TV
fodder for the late night TV comics. Should be entertaining at best.

Oh? You mean you think it'll tax Fox's number 1 spot?

I will be very much interested on what they have to show, now I am also aware that if their news show things that the US doesn't like they will be shut down very fast.

Is good to have an outside view of the world when you want to compare to our own news media.

After all I believe that our own media is control anyway.

s Al-Jazeera is "anti-American" because they broadcast news about U.S. casualties, show terrorist messages, and report on international perspectives? Isn't that news?

Unfortunately we've come to the point where simply reporting unpleasant facts is seen as "anti-American." Apparently anything other than timidly parroting the Bush administration line is "anti-American" and "pro-terrorist." Even the facts themselves are "anti-American" it seems.

Originally posted by marg6043
I will be very much interested on what they have to show, now I am also aware that if their news show things that the US doesn't like they will be shut down very fast.

Is good to have an outside view of the world when you want to compare to our own news media.

After all I believe that our own media is control anyway.

That's not very "First Amendment"-like. If that happens, you can be sure that there will be an outcry, just as much as there would be an outcry for disallowing an Israeli network to broadcast here. ACLU, anyone?

Anyway, I don't like the FCC very much. They seem antithetical to the idea of Freedom of Speech. People always make the argument that it's "for the children." I think it's better that parents take a more active role in their child's life, and to put a little discipline into what they watch.

All media is biased, if you even add the word "should" or "but" or "however" into a sentence you add bias. All of the networks report casualty figures. However, it was Al-Jazeera that said US forces (or maybe they said Coalition force, I don't remember, and it doesn't matter) killed 500,000 children. It didn't happen, even CNN or CBSnews didn't report it (and they salivate over the idea of making the US look bad... unless of course you're talking about and playing down the idea of a liberal and the stain on a blue dress.) Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya all encourage terrorism and brutality by broadcasting in entirety the murders of kidnapped westerners - tapes which are propaganda for the terror groups and help them gain recruits.

Some of you feel FOX is conservative, but they don't say the war is good, nobody thinks war is good. They simply give us a little more than doom and gloom - they have personal interests stories about soldiers' lives. They showed the statues of Saddam getting pulled down and how ecstatic the Iraqis were that they could now spit on their tormentor with impunity. They showed the pictures of American soldiers getting handed flowers and getting hugs by Iraqi civilians. All CNN did was show the most prominent statue down and declare that there is much more to be done.

Sure, let Al Jazeera into the US, everyone has a right here to let their opinions be known, but calling it a news network is a stretch, unless they have the disclaimer of a name like JNN (Jihad News Network with your anchors Osama bin Hidin' and former Iraqi Information Minister Baghdad Bob - Dan Rather and Maureen Dowd, JNN contributors). Like Flyersfan noted, Al Jazeera is like getting your current events from Leno, The Daily Show, or TheOnion... Luckily, most of us in the US are not Islamic fundamentalists and are not blind to their antics so we've voted with our remotes, and have chosen the news channel that rightly deserves the #1 spot. The most terrible thing to me is when I travel to Europe and have to watch the European versions of CNN... don't get me started on them.

I personally find the BBC the only consistantly down to earth and factual news organisation out there...

even the BBC is not perfect... but they are generally far more impartial

Yeah, the BBC isn't all too bad. I've never watched its broadcasts but I sometimes read the website because I've given up on CNN, and FOX's website is terribly designed - so I peruse it occasionally to "fill in the gaps" when I can't watch television news (newspapers are so outdated, being half a day late or worse) Its wording isn't terribly biased, but sometimes I find what stories they choose to push, or even cover (or not cover) odd, if not ulteriorly (yep, not a word) motivated.