My first reaction was shock that the FCC is allowing an extension of Qatar’s government to broadcast here. Plus of course the anti American coverage. IIRC weren’t they the ones that gleefully covered the American deaths in Somalia in the late 90’s? Our soldier’s corpses dragged through the streets. Seems like that was the first time I became aware of Al Jazeera. Just can’t recall for sure. That was a long time ago.
I haven’t fully formed an opinion yet. I’m wondering how others feel.
I’ve enjoyed their written news coverage for giving a view to things the Western media doesn’t spend a lot of time on. Their coverage of the Libyan uprising was superb.
I’ve seen Al Jazeera America before as an hour long program and didn’t see any reason to be upset by it. I’m not well versed in their history and won’t speak on their responses to any previous events (9/11, Somalia, whatever) since it’d be from ignorance but my limited exposure to them has been positive.
This. First of all, they’re not entering the “airwaves,” as this is going to be a cable network. Secondly, censoring anti-American content is anti-American.
I’m fine with it. Most of the “anti-American” claims I’ve heard were drummed up in the lead-up to the Iraq war, when right-wingers were calling anything that didn’t tow the party line anti-American. I discount all claims of anti-Americanism from the time of “Freedom Fries”.
The opposition seems to be from the “OH MY GOD! MOOSELIMS!” crowd. They almost certainly have more professional credibility than Fox. Most cable systems have a channel select feature, if you don’t want to be exposed to it, turn the channel.
From what I have heard Al Jazeera has provided some fairly balanced and informative news stories. This is what I have been told via talk radio; I have not watched the station myself.
I don’t know why we should block a broadcaster because it has funding from the Qatar government, we allow the BBC to broadcast here and it gets funding from the British goverment. Why would that matter?
I like Al Jazeera in general, it has good international coverage.
Why on earh would more information and more perspectives be a bad thing?
This is an open-and-shut case to me. I don’t really know anything about al Jazeera’s coverage, since I haven’t really paid much attention to them. But I don’t need to know. Freedom of speech is important, and they have just as much right to express their views as any other network.
Al Jazeera has been on UK freeview for some time. The journalism is fairly well done and there is relatively little editorializing or obvious propaganda. It’s quite broadly focused and altogether it’s only the fact that the logo has arabic characters that reminds you of any arabic connection at all.
WRT Al Jazeera’s past, I don’t know what to make of it. At the time of Gulf War 2 it was described by western media as a propaganda channel. By the time of the arab spring though, it was frequently praised as the main conduit for real information about what was happening, and was also often described as being friendly to the west.
Did it change in that time or is/were there errors and exaggeration in the western media?
I’m curious how they handle female anchors or if they’ll even have them. It might be an indication how separate the US division will be from the Arab one.
I do see a need for news that could better explain the Arab world and its concerns. Al Jazeera could help fill that need if their coverage is reasonably neutral and unbiased.
I’m really not being snarky, but if we can handle the likes of Fox News, there is no reason we should have any standards for what kind of news is broadcast.
They are about as “anti-American” as the BBC, so I have no problem with them having a cable channel. Like others have mentioned, I’ve found their written coverage of world events to be excellent.
Well, burkas and head scarves probably won’t get positive ratings in the US. It’ll be interesting to see how they balance their concerns about women with broadcasting needs.
Egypt for example is changing the look of their female anchors. Thanks to the Muslim Brotherhood taking power.
If you don’t like it, use that remote and switch channels.
Could it possibly be more one-sided and dogmatic than Fox?
Getting different perspectives (even from Fox) is often good - if for no other reason than the “know thy enemy” concept of being well-informed.
Al Jazerra is very often quoted/re-broadcast on other channels when they have breaking news or specific information that other channels don’t - so we are already getting news from them indirectly.
The more the merrier. I wouldn’t mind seeing news channels from every country on earth available on my cable listings…and yes, even North Korea and Canada.
Is it too much to ask that you actually familiarize yourself with the network before forming your opinions the network? What would you think if someone postulated that any TV network originating in the South (TBS or CNN jump immediately to mind) would feature only redneck hicks in overalls and only show battered, pregnant female presenters?
To answer the question in the OP: I couldn’t care less about AJ broadcasting in the US. I don’t get my news from them, I don’t really have any informed opinions on their operations, and if you don’t like them don’t watch them.
Why does it matter what the female newscasters wear? If they wear burkas would it invalidate the news? They may wear traditional Muslim dress if their faith or their audience demands it, just as Kim Guifoyle of Fox wears miniskirts because she either wants to or thinks her audience wants it. Doesn’t make her broadcasting any more or less relevant.
It’ll be interesting to see how they balance their concerns about women with broadcasting needs.