Wow. In the aftermath of the Paris bombings, I saw several posts recommending Al-Jazeera as the network doing the best job of covering the story without hysteria, fact-free hypothesizing, and sensationalizing, so I found it in my cable stable and checked it out.
It proved to be as advertised, and not just on the Paris horror — other stories, international and US-oriented, were equally well covered. And right now I’m watching a program called Head To Head, wherein a knowledgeable interviewer is respectfully but persistently interrogating General Assad Durrani, the former head of Pakistan’s spy agency, in front of an audience of equally well-informed and articulate Pakistanis and others, including a panel of experts who are able to interject invited corrections and challenges, on a range of issues — letting the general reveal himself (oh, my, and what a chillingly matter-of-factly heartless bastard he is) at length but not letting him off the hook on all his evasions, justifications, and so forth. It’s an amazing performance that you would never see on American TV.
If your TV service includes Al-Jazeera, and you want a better news service than what the American networks, cable and broadcast, seem capable of providing, then you definitely need to check it out. You won’t find skateboard-riding bulldogs there but you will find dispassionate and in-depth reporting of major news stories. And no, it doesn’t appear to be an anti-American propaganda outlet — OH MY GOD — just heard the interviewer challenge the general with “At least the Americans published a report on their intelligence wrongdoings, so why haven’t the Pakistani intelligence services…” to which the general smilingly replied, “Oh, because, there were no wrongdoings.” To the gasping shock of interviewer and audience.
Really amazing TV given how low the American version has sunk.
“Heartless bastard” — those schoolchildren murdered by the Taliban were “collateral damage”.
Holy guacamole. Given how hard (without American-style shrieking and bullying) the general is being pushed and challenged, by both interviewer and audience interrogators, I’m amazed he agreed to do the program in the first place. And yet there he sits, smiling now and then, pushing back without a trace of surrender.
Part of our regular rotation at home, although we get the international version here. Just be alert for any bias regarding Qatar’s regional interests and prejudices such as events in Egypt involving the Muslim Brotherhood or the insurgency in Yemen, just to name a couple. Every cable network reveals some national or cultural bias; CNN, BBC and al Jazeera all.
Have you ever watched Russia Today? It’s a honk watching it back-to-back with Fox. Any pig can find the occasional truffle.
I’d be curious to know how different the slant is/isn’t between the various incarnations of AJ, given the different audiences they’re serving.
I wouldn’t know not having access to the American affiliate but one assumes it is mostly the same programming with different anchors. What we get is straight from Doha.
I have often referred to this documentary in three parts at Al Jazeera, one of the best!
So keep in mind it’s a state propaganda television station for Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood. Qatar and Turkey considered HRC as one of theirs … her failed policy in Libya and Syria is unforgiving and a major cause of the deaths and turmoil of today. See my writing during the past 3 years.
Thanks, Oui and Shaun, for your cautionary notes about whose interests AJ will put a thumb on the scales for. It would be too much to expect that any human endeavor would be bias-free, and I shall keep that in mind. Nonetheless, I’m going to be following AJ’s coverage of the news, particularly for the international stories that the American media botch, skew, slide over the surface of, or ignore entirely.
Right now AJ’s doing a story about the deforestation in the Congo for palm oil production — something I knew nothing of till now.
Has its moments. Even RT is spot on sometimes. I rank AJ pretty high on most issues with BBC second and CNN often a distant third. But God bless CNN for pumping out US election nights wall-to-wall on their international platform. Best entertainment on the planet for me.
HRC gambled on the Muslim Brotherhoof with the Arab Spring hoping a democratic regime could be established according to the model of Turkey. How naive .. well, quite stupid really! The Salafist regimes of KSA and the other GCC states blocked any agreement to a Libyan and Syrian opposition. Morsi was overthrown in Egypt and that ended the foreign policy run of Qatar and Turkey in the Middle East.
○ MB Axis Egypt – Turkey – Qatar Faces Defeat
○ Deadly Infighting Within Syrian Opposition Groups?
○ Push by Saudi Clerics for an Islamic State in Al-Sham (Syria)
With a more skillful politician than Morsi, I don’t think that the idea that the Moslem Brotherhood could transition away from military rule was necessarily naive. But in retrospect, thinking that Erdogan could hold Turkey together was naive as well. If Bush allowed himself to be diverted (or rushed to be diverted) from Afghanistan to Iraq, Clinton had a similar experience with Libya, Syria, and especially Ukraine. Morsi moved too fast and much too roughly on cultural issues.
I wouldn’t call it “cultural business” …
Mohamed Morsi didn’t lead Egypt under his presidency, it was the Muslim Brotherhood leadership with Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and his deputy Khairat el-Shater. Morsi escaped in a prison break orchestrated by Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood at the outset of the Tahrir revolt. Just as in Iraq and Afghanistan where overcrowded jails with jihadists have been emptied with thousands released in recent years.
○ Developments Arab Spring Egypt’s Revolt Explained
○ Classic Agitator: Preacher Safwat Hegazy Inciting Violence In Cairo
○ Diary of a Traveling Scholar in the Arab World
Yes, from military rule to theocratic rule. Hardly an improvement.
I came on al Jazeera as the only source doing round-the-clock coverage of the Arab Spring during Tahrir Square. I watched them for long periods daily for slightly over a year. In retrospect, they were pushing a Qatar (or Gulf State) agenda to bring the Moslem Brotherhood to power in Egypt. At that point, that was a reasonable alternative to a Syrian-style civil war in Egypt with 80 million people. I got to see the work of Ayman Mohyeldin, now of NBC, who still gets my respect for his coverage of the Middle East.
Around 2012, the head of al Jazeera was replaced by a member of the Qatar royal family. The coverage became more controlled as they rolled out al Jazeera America. Their US coverage even before tended toward a Village mindset and generally sucked. I haven’t seen the video version recently; I don’t know whether that is still true.
They were best on Middle East when Qatar’s interests were not involved. Their Libyan war coverage was embedded and gutsy and tended to focus on the war progress rather than any political issues within the rebel coalition. Their European coverage was pedestrian, equivalent to other European media, such as BBC. Their South Asia coverage, especially on development issues, was sharp. Asia-Pacific and Latin America coverage was skimpy.
And their main commercials were for Qatari liquid natural gas, transported in ships.
Interesting that they are pushing the Pakistanis. But then human rights would be a way to crack open Pakistan for Moslem Brotherhood. Their big hope for a while was Imran Khan.
For foreign news on tv I go to RT first. Granted, they have a few weak 1/2 hr discussion shows that are amateurish, but a few like the Crosstalk show, Sophie & Co, and Thom Hartmann are often worth watching.
Then France24 (especially for the recent events) and BBC.
AJ and CNN are a distant fourth in my viewing habits.
A recent awful ambush interview Ali Velshi of AJ did with Prof Stephen Cohen, the Russian expert — unless it was a one-off exception — provides a good example of why I don’t watch AJ much anymore. On RT, where he appears semi-frequently with Hartmann, Cohen engages in a thoughtful, civil discussion with the host. With AJ’s Velshi, constantly interrupting and pushing a human rights angle against Cohen/Russia, the guest was forced to discuss a few rights abuses in Russia that Velshi seemed to suggest should prevent the US from working with the Russians vs ISIS.
Coverage of the Russia-US relationship, as it plays out in Syria and Ukraine, offers a good enough glimpse into whether a network is engaging in good journalism or state-influenced propaganda. Ironically the state-backed RT comes out far ahead on the honest journalism side than do CNN and all other US tv news outlets, as well as AJ.