If you don’t have this stream running, you’re not aware. Al Jazeera’s coverage is a reproach to the Western media, at least as much of it as I’ve looked at.
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If you don’t have this stream running, you’re not aware. Al Jazeera’s coverage is a reproach to the Western media, at least as much of it as I’ve looked at.
Well Al Jazeera’s coverage is also a shining example of journalism at its best. Thorough, daring (Mubarak tried to stop them) fair and balanced. I haven’t heard any praise of Mubarak but I did hear Mubarak and some guy with an Australian accent advising people to stay home tonight for their own safety even if Mubarak told them to do so and extensive coverage of looting (even rumors of looting).
I don’t doubt that most Al Jazeera staff are pleased by the events — they didn’t go to work for al Jazeera to shore up Arab dictators — but they are reporting it straight.
Agree and have had it running and generally only listening - there was a lull during the Egyptian night, and a segment on Japanese marriages and resulting name changes ran numerous times throughout.
The live interviews and immediate cut-aways for instance to President Obama’s statement all seem to move smoothly.
Well, other than the problem - which is scarcely unique to Al-Jazeera - of having, at times, more commentators and commentary than events to comment on, Al-J’s coverage of the Egyptian uprising has been pretty thorough. Which isn’t to be wondered at since they are headquartered there: I think the US media were pretty belated getting around to covering Egypt: but I also think that’s just a function of their being American; i.e. stuff that happens here is, virtually by definition, “more real” than what goes on in weird foreign countries speaking weird foreign languages.
There is also the fact that the American media have systematically dismantled their foreign desks. It reached the point years ago that the BBC had much better coverage than American newspapers, networks and wire services had. But now the BBC is cutting its foreign services.
I don’t know where we go from here.
I agree that Al-Jazeera is unrivaled, but good job making yourself sound like an elitist you-know-what.
The documentary ‘Control Room’ about Al Jazeera during the Iraq invasion is endlessly insightful.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0391024/