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”.