2008 Woodie Awards
The real Al-Jazeera
Ismail Ayad '10
Issue date: 1/31/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
Being one of the few Arabs here, I have taken it upon myself to write about the Middle East, and how Arabs view political and social issues. Today I would like to talk about Al-Jazeera. Since being here I have heard comments of how Al-Jazeera is essentially a network run by terrorists; this perception is false.
Here's a history of Al-Jazeera: it was established in 1996 in a small state called Qatar. The Qatari government pledged an initial amount of $150 million USD to start up the network, and enlisted former BBC Arabia anchors to start it up. Prior to its launch, the only news media access in the Middle East, other than CNN, came from state-owned and censored news mediums. The launch of Al-Jazeera allowed for a certain level of freedom of speech which was unheard of prior to its launch. Since its creation, it has claimed to be politically independent, and has also infuriated various Middle Eastern governments because of its often critical look at the political institutions established in many Middle Eastern countries.
Furthermore, since its launch in 1996, Al-Jazeera has evolved to include various sports and entertainment channels and is now a network which is similar to Showtime or Sky. Last year, Al-Jazeera launched an English version of its news channel called Al-Jazeera International; the channel has now enlisted various journalists from not only the Arab world but also almost every corner of the globe.
To the Arab world, Al-Jazeera is a credible news source and, by most standards, it is much more unbiased than Fox News. However, here in America Al-Jazeera has a bad reputation, which in my opinion is undeserved. I have asked around and there seems to be this idea of a correlation between Arab extremism and Al-Jazeera. People often tell me that Al-Jazeera is a terrorist-run network; considering that it is highly unlikely anyone has watched Al-Jazeera, because it is in Arabic, it has intrigued me how this idea is prevalent in American thinking.
On this note, their reasoning is that all terrorist videos are released primarily through Al-Jazeera and are then released to foreign news programs from Al-Jazeera, with its little logo in the bottom right of the screen. Because this is the only exposure Americans have to Al-Jazeera, it is understandable that there may be a subconscious association between terrorism and Al-Jazeera. This is often associated with the view of bin Laden dropping off the videos at the Al-Jazeera HQ and having a conversation with some of the anchors, and then leaving without being apprehended. This is not the case, and I highly encourage anyone and everyone to watch Al-Jazeera International whenever they can. After you've watched about an hour or two of their international programming, then you can make an informed judgment about this media institution.
Here's a history of Al-Jazeera: it was established in 1996 in a small state called Qatar. The Qatari government pledged an initial amount of $150 million USD to start up the network, and enlisted former BBC Arabia anchors to start it up. Prior to its launch, the only news media access in the Middle East, other than CNN, came from state-owned and censored news mediums. The launch of Al-Jazeera allowed for a certain level of freedom of speech which was unheard of prior to its launch. Since its creation, it has claimed to be politically independent, and has also infuriated various Middle Eastern governments because of its often critical look at the political institutions established in many Middle Eastern countries.
Furthermore, since its launch in 1996, Al-Jazeera has evolved to include various sports and entertainment channels and is now a network which is similar to Showtime or Sky. Last year, Al-Jazeera launched an English version of its news channel called Al-Jazeera International; the channel has now enlisted various journalists from not only the Arab world but also almost every corner of the globe.
To the Arab world, Al-Jazeera is a credible news source and, by most standards, it is much more unbiased than Fox News. However, here in America Al-Jazeera has a bad reputation, which in my opinion is undeserved. I have asked around and there seems to be this idea of a correlation between Arab extremism and Al-Jazeera. People often tell me that Al-Jazeera is a terrorist-run network; considering that it is highly unlikely anyone has watched Al-Jazeera, because it is in Arabic, it has intrigued me how this idea is prevalent in American thinking.
On this note, their reasoning is that all terrorist videos are released primarily through Al-Jazeera and are then released to foreign news programs from Al-Jazeera, with its little logo in the bottom right of the screen. Because this is the only exposure Americans have to Al-Jazeera, it is understandable that there may be a subconscious association between terrorism and Al-Jazeera. This is often associated with the view of bin Laden dropping off the videos at the Al-Jazeera HQ and having a conversation with some of the anchors, and then leaving without being apprehended. This is not the case, and I highly encourage anyone and everyone to watch Al-Jazeera International whenever they can. After you've watched about an hour or two of their international programming, then you can make an informed judgment about this media institution.
Viewing Comments 1 - 4 of 4
Ahmed
posted 1/31/07 @ 11:27 AM EST
Al Jazeera Arabic may be good but Al Jazeera English is a wholly diluted version meant to act as a bullet proof vest for the Arabic one.
No one at the English channel has a clue about what is happening and everyone at the Arabic channel detest their platitudes. (Continued…)
Ellen Jo Katinas
posted 1/31/07 @ 2:40 PM EST
Having lived in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia to be exact), I was grateful that Al-Jazeera existed. I was able to hear news about the region that was not slanted toward the Western viewpoint. (Continued…)
Jim Zackey
posted 2/04/07 @ 8:59 AM EST
The US Defense Department began airing Al-Jazeera on closed circuit Pentagon TV since early December 2006. Any body with even a casual exposure to typical media in the Middle East will not be surprised if soon all US missions will ask the State Department carry Aljazeera on its VOA-TV platform. (Continued…)
Rita
posted 2/23/07 @ 3:39 PM EST
Just as one can't blame mulberry for locust's fault, it will be wrong to drop all blames on a messenger's door.
Is nothing more important left to fill airtime that web sites and News channels reduced to such non-issues of what a gas station operator has to say about Al-Jazeera? They need to show more imagination. (Continued…)
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