# What does Al-Jazeera report?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-al-jazeera-report/164543>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 27, 2003, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-al-jazeera-report/164543 "2003-03-27T15:55:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Parthol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dec6dc/32.png) [@Parthol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Parthol)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-al-jazeera-report/164543/1 "2003-03-27T15:55:45Z")

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Does anyone know if the following stories or opinions are mentioned (with objectivity) on the Al-Jazeera network?

- The Iraqi’s use of a hospital building to store military supplies

- The “pretend to surrender and then attack” tactics reportedly used by Iraqi soldiers

- The discovery of a mural depicting a 9-11-like scene of an airplane crashing into a building

- The possibility that the recent deadly explosion in a Baghdad marketplace was caused by Iraqi ordnance

- Reports that Saddam loyalists are threatening other Iraqi men with death if they do not fight?

- The placement of Iraqi missile-launchers and other military installations in close proximity to civilian populations

- Allegations from a U.S. General that Iraqi soldiers killed American POW’s.

…and Iraqi allegations that the USA is deliberately targeting Iraqi civilians.

Please, I know this has the potential to explode into a Great Debate, but for now I’m just interested in knowing the facts of Al-Jazeera’s reportage.

Thanks!

-P

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**Author:** ![elfje](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19b73/32.png) [@elfje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfje)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-al-jazeera-report/164543/2 "2003-03-27T16:14:56Z")

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[http://www.allied-media.com/aljazeera/](http://www.allied-media.com/aljazeera/)

as far as I can see, here you can search Al Jazeera’s

Coverage  
General Info  
Press Articles  
Al Jazeera Major Programs  
Program Schedule

Advertising

hope this helps

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**Author:** ![gvsantos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a88e4f/32.png) [@gvsantos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gvsantos)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-al-jazeera-report/164543/3 "2003-03-27T16:16:29Z")

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They recently launched an english version website. I couldn’t even begin to speculate how objective their coverage is but if you are interested the site is:

[http://english.aljazeera.net/](http://english.aljazeera.net/)

I read that they have a US server that has been subject to a wave of hacker attacks so I think that the site availibility might be sporadic at best

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**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-al-jazeera-report/164543/4 "2003-03-27T16:17:10Z")

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There is an english version website out now-

> **[Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera](https://www.aljazeera.com/)**
>
> News, analysis from the Middle East & worldwide, multimedia & interactives, opinions, documentaries, podcasts, long reads and broadcast schedule.

It appears to have been hacked recently though- Not sure how long that will last, but if it changes, as I post this there is a picture of an American Flag with “Let Freedom Ring” underneath it, as well as “Hacked by Patriot, Freedom Cyber Force Militia” Written underneath that. There is no acess to any other parts of the website, I am guessing that they got rid of the access when they hacked it.

I would bookmark it, I am sure the site will be back up in a couple days though.

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**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-al-jazeera-report/164543/5 "2003-03-27T16:18:22Z")

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Doh, simulpost. LOL

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**Author:** ![gvsantos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a88e4f/32.png) [@gvsantos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gvsantos)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-al-jazeera-report/164543/6 "2003-03-27T16:23:43Z")

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I guess we read the same article. Congrats on your 1000th post though. I’m happy I could take part 😃

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**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-al-jazeera-report/164543/7 "2003-03-27T16:35:44Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Epimetheus \*  
> “Hacked by **Patriot, Freedom Cyber Force Militia** ” Written underneath that.

ROFL, did they attack it with _Happy Fun Ball_?

I’m sure that looking at the Al-Jazeera site would probably just piss me off but I think it would be useful to know what the tone and bias of their coverage is firsthand.

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**Author:** ![Parthol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dec6dc/32.png) [@Parthol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Parthol)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-al-jazeera-report/164543/8 "2003-03-27T19:29:14Z")

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Thanks for the links! I hope the English Al-Jazeera site comes back on line before too long…

-P

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**Author:** ![acropolis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9f8e36/32.png) [@acropolis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/acropolis)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2003, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-al-jazeera-report/164543/9 "2003-03-29T18:16:58Z")

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Well the english website for Al Jazeera is now in arabic.

Al-Jazeera is an independent news agency funded by the king of Qatar. (much like the BBC is an independent news agency funded by the United Kingdom).

This doesn’t meen it is un-biased. From what I have been able to get from translations and such on a report I did on the change from monarchy to democracy in Qatar (Poli-Sci major here), I was able to figure out that “independent” really means “answers to no one” It is still a news agency run by and for arabs living in the arab world.

It is not un-biased. I heard a report the other day on the BBC and they were interviewing Arabs who live in California. One guy said he was so sick of the bias in the media in America that he was paying some huge amount of money to get Al-Jazeera at his house. I laughed because he wasn’t paying money for non-biased, he was paying money for his bias.

My $.02
