Al Jazeera
27 Jun2008
I just saw a story on Al Jazeera about… Burlington, Vermont! (Jeez, I can’t get away from that place!) It seems there was a big brouhaha in the home of the Magic Hat Brewery about the local cable company carrying Al Jazeera. Some people want it banned as un-American or anti-Semitic or (of all things) propaganda.
Granted, I don’t watch TV all day long. But when I want real news – I watch Al Jazeera. They never try to be cute like CNN. They give the news and very little opinion. You won’t find a Bill Orally or Keith Blowberman anywhere on the channel. But they do talk to many people from different parts of the world and you get a lot of on the street reporting (like “a tank just blew up your village. Can you tell us what you saw?”) – stuff you will NEVER see in the States (especially from Iraq). And some of these people they allow to talk into their microphones are not fans of either the US or Israel. My Opinion: It happens. Deal with it.
As for the propaganda complaint – Are you joking? What American news program over the past eight years HASN’T fed you propaganda?? When the government is paying people to go on news programs and lie – which has happened on more than one occasion – isn’t that propaganda? When people show up on news programs and are called “experts” or “strategists” and are neither – isn’t that propaganda? With all the self censorship that happens in American news because they are all owned by large weapons manufacturers (or Disney – the denial people) – isn’t that propaganda?
Come on! We are the leaders in this technology. No one lies to the general population with more flair then we do.
- In: Main
4 Responses to Al Jazeera
Jim
June 27th, 2008 at 7:29 am
The viewers in Burlington pressing for a choice to diverse news channels are in fact the torch bearers for greater access to alternate information sources. Armed with diverse news sources, the American people can crosscheck and verify the government’s position to rid themselves of half-truths from the corporate media, which remains a willing accomplice in keeping American viewers continually subjected to “Washington’s Culture of Deception.”
Those who champion the cause of defending Vermont need to spell out how the American people can assure wider access to competent and qualified perspectives to challenge such practices. Critics of Al Jazeera should list alternates by listing which American channels have risen up to
provide clear cut answers to what’s really going on in the Middle East.
Now more than ever the US public and its opinions makers need tools that can help them separate the wheat from the chaff not occasionally but on an on-going, round the clock basis.
mburma
June 27th, 2008 at 9:16 am
I edited the above comment because it started talking about Scott McClellan and ran on a bit.
teastiles
June 27th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
The channel appears on Burlington Telecom, which is Burlington’s municipally owned fiber optic network that provides tv/internet/phone for a better price than the worst company in the cable world, Comcast. BT is one of two companies that carry the channel. The people who protested did not ever watch it, not even once. The commissioners pulled it and the mayor put it back on and had a couple of meetings on it. It remains.
Sometimes, but not always, we tolerate the differences. We are bit more liberal and independent, but not always, and we sometimes forget that if a station like Al Jazeera is our enemy, it is better to know it.
mburma
June 28th, 2008 at 1:09 am
FYI – the Al Jazeera piece had a lot of footage from the town meetings, showing people speaking both for and against. They also talked to a number of folks on the street.