February 03, 2006
Looking for Accurate World News? It's Al-Jazeera!
According to this article in the Guardian UK, everyone's favorite leftwing newspaper overseas, the US does a terrible job in reporting international news, and al-Jazeera is poised to take over the void.
The US media reached an "all-time low" in failing to reflect public opinion and Americans' desire for trusted information, instead acting as a "cheerleader" for war, said Amy Goodman, the executive producer and host of US TV and radio news show Democracy Now!, at a news forum organised by al-Jazeera.
Well there's a surprise! And, if you're interested in Goodman's political leanings, check out the Democracy Now! website.
"The US media have done a shameful job of reporting on the Arab world. With the rise of al-Jazeera and independent media there is a chance for the Arab media to react back, but instead what we get is a clash," said Ethan Zuckerman, the co-founder of Global Voices Online and research fellow at the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School.
"I would urge everyone involved with new Arabic media not just to report on this [Arabic] world more fairly and accurately, but to report on the whole world more fairly and accurately. I challenge al-Jazeera and the new Arabic media players to do a better job that the US in covering the rest of the world," he said.
Here's a sampling of how Zuckerman really feels about al-Jazeera. Shall we give him a set of pom poms and a megaphone?
Ms Goodman said in the run-up to the Iraq war a study of NBC, CBS, ABC and PBS newscasts over a fortnight recorded 393 interviews on the conflict, of which only three reported the anti-war movement.
"This is a media cheerleading for war and does not represent mainstream opinion in the US," she added.
Ms Goodman said she believed the policy of embedding reporters with coalition forces was "a total failure for independent journalism ... western audiences need to see the other side of the story - from communities and hospitals".
"If people in the US had a true picture of war - dead babies, women with their legs blown off, dead and dying soldiers - they would say 'no'," she said.
"There is nothing more important than the media - it is more powerful than any bomb or missile and we have to take it back ... we need a media that is independent and honestly showing us the images, the hell, ugliness and brutality of war, not selling us war."
That's really rich. The MSM rarely talks about any of the advances in the war, none of the good things the troops are accomplishing. Their favorite topic is the death toll (but not of the terrorists). And, since when don't they report on the anti-war stance? Maybe they don't have to because they espouse it in their reporting about the war.
Not all journalists are embedded. If I were a journalist, I would rather be embedded with troops who would be there to protect me if need be, rather than run the risk of kidnapping and beheading by terrorists.
The whole concept of an unbiased al-Jazeera is the biggest joke since the MSM worldwide called itself unbiased. Let's face it, folks, all media has a slant whether it's admitted or not. As humans, it is very difficult for journalists to keep feelings and beliefs out of their reports.
Now if the media were to hire reporters of different ideologies, then the public might get a more balanced view of world events. But with a high percentage of journalists describing their own views as liberal, that's not reassuring.
For more on al-Jazeera, click here .
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