Al Jazeera America

[Lenina Rosenweg]

Recently Al Jazeera began US based operations with a website and a TV channel. I was looking forward to this, I thought North American based Jaz could provide a breath of fresh air for the very limited US corporate media.

I don't have any illusions-Al Jazeera is ultimately accountable to the Emir of Qatar, a guy who runs a viciously repressive regime (he recently sentenced a poet to life imprisonment for criticizing him).Al Jazeera is very pro Ikwan and had a crisis recently when a large part of their Egyptian bureau resigned. They are very pro-Syrian rebel as well.

Still Al Jazeera does give an opening to leftist writers-PePe Escobar and others and is at least somewhat critical of US imperialism. The US corporate media-from Fox to MSNBC to NPR gives saturation coverage to stories like Oprah trying to buy a $2000 hand bag in Switzerland while ignoring the death tolls of US drone warfare and blacking out student protests in Quebec, Mexico, etc.

so... of those who have seen Al Jazeera America, what do people think so far?

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

I dig it and I think it's a hilarious idea.

[RedBen]

so far so good. even msnbc is looking like a milder fox news. ajam is gonna be better than current tv ever was

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

As untrustworthy as any of the other networks.

[Art Vandelay]

I think just like any other bourgeois news source its reports will have to be read with a critical eye. It certainly cant be a negative developmwnt however I dont think.


I dig it and I think it's a hilarious idea.

Im going to stop to grab milk on the way home from work hun, do we need anything else.

[adipocere]

Al Jazeera hides pro-west corporate-democracy-capitalist propaganda under layers of anti-war and human rights stories. Their real strength, and objective in my opinion, is to leverage war and conflict to serve as catnip for disillusioned and angry young people in order to steer their energy into market-friendly political action and undermind real leftist movements, while cultivating and stirring ethnic and cultural division to prevent a unified front.

It only seems refreshing by comparison to how right wing and stale the msm has become. They offer very little perspective that can't be found in genuine independent and alternative media, of which there is plenty. I'm not saying that Al Jazeera doesn't have quality journalism or worthwhile content, but I do believe that the propaganda is thick, intentional and highly sophisticated.

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

so far so good. even msnbc is looking like a milder fox news. ajam is gonna be better than current tv ever was

Speaking of, didn't Gore sell Current to AJ? Is this the end result of that? I forgot about this and am now confused.


Im going to stop to grab milk on the way home from work hun, do we need anything else.

Lots of mint tea, or any tea, for that matter, I needs it, lql, ummm,...idk what you want to eat later but we need some meats, I was thinking about making some bitochki? To put some things we have left to use.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

Speaking of, didn't Gore sell Current to AJ? Is this the end result of that? I forgot about this and am now confused.



Lots of mint tea, or any tea, for that matter, I needs it, lql, ummm,...idk what you want to eat later but we need some meats, I was thinking about making some bitochki? To put some things we have left to use.

Yep, Al Gore sold Current TV to AJ for $500 million. I guess it was an attempt at some sort of indy channel. They had a failed IPO in 2009 or something. I guess they just couldn't make it in today's climate, what with all the intense public interest in Snooky's new makeover, Kim Kardashian and Miley Cyrus twerking.

BTW I like bitochki. Quick, simple to make. You guys like blini? I find stacks of them w/sour cream are great for late night snacks.

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

Yep, Al Gore sold Current TV to AJ for $500 million. I guess it was an attempt at some sort of indy channel. They had a failed IPO in 2009 or something. I guess they just couldn't make it in today's climate, what with all the intense public interest in Snooky's new makeover, Kim Kardashian and Miley Cyrus twerking.

A lot of this true but honestly Current was pretty cool but they would have a lot of boring nonsense on their which I think (imho) probably contributed to this selling thing.


BTW I like bitochki. Quick, simple to make. You guys like blini? I find stacks of them w/sour cream are great for late night snacks.

Oh my gosh, this is a terrific idea! I love blini. :)

[Red Commissar]

Current TV was originally made off the corpse of some international canadian station. I remember this because my folks sometimes watched that channel. It seems current though got beat out as the token liberal station by MSNBC and got more and more sidelined trying to fill a niche and fail in the process.

Al Jazeera wanted to rebrand current as its America branch to make it easier to enter into the cable news scene. It's difficult to do this, especially on a national scale- for context, the last outlet to be able to do this in the US was Fox News back in 1996 (coming a few months after MSNBC's original launch). This acquisition of current was AJE's foot in the door, so to speak. As it launched, a lot of providers ended up switching it off because they reasoned that they had signed the contract with the original owners of Current, not Al Jazeera. There were probably some other factors at play there too, but the end result is that several carriers will not broadcast it in the States.

When I visit my parents they have uverse (ATT), and I remember seeing current on there a while ago. Going back recently I was curious to see if AJE appeared, but the channel itself doesn't even appear anymore on account of this dispute.

[X5N]

I'm a bit upset that they cut off AJE to American viewers. Now I have no live streams to watch on my laptop.

[Comrade Samuel]

Haven't been able to see their North American TV channel yet but honestly just from reading their website for a while and seeing some content on youtube it doesn't seem all that horrible.

Yeah, yeah I know most revlefters hate Al-Jazera and I acknowledge that I've seen very little of the content they've ever produced but when compared to Fox, CNN, MSNBC or my current main news source CBS they seem pretty solid.

[bcbm]

i browse al jazeera most days for news, among others. i like them but obviously they are not 'revolutionary' in any way, which i think is a funny criticism. it is important, i think, to read a variety of sources and opinions to keep your own mind sharp and aware.

[Rain]

I'm a big fan of Al Jazeera, so the news about Al Jazeera America was great. I've watched (They've had their eye on the market for a long time). I've watched it a few times and I think it gives a much more balanced view of world events. I regularly turned to regular Al Jazeera for my political science class last year.

[Celtic_0ne]

Personally I not a fan of AJ America because I don't have a cable subscription and they don't upload news to YouTube anymore so I just stick to AJ English