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Comment by nir | Hacker News Reader

When I want to know what's really going on in the world, I don't watch the government-influenced, corporate-financed mainstream western media. I tune into the Emir of Qatar's station, where centuries old traditions of democracy and independent journalism reporting produce quality, objective reporting.

Incredible how gullible most people are. You just need to up the sophistication by a notch to have them eating out of your hand.

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If I were smarter, I'd call out the type of rhetorical attack you just made, but since I'm not, I'll just point out that you provided no evidence of bias and simply played off of stereotypes.

Al Jazeera is widely respected in the journalism world.

It's not a "rhetorical attack". Al Jazeera is financed by the Emir of Qatar, that's a fact. The Emir of Qatar is essentially the ruler of that nation, which is an absolute monarchy (ie, the king effectively rules the country).

These are all known facts. "Al Jazeera is widely respected in the journalism world" is not a known fact, to me. From what I see, it is respected by some and less respected by others.

Parent alluded ALL corporate news organizations have bias.

Exactly.

Which version of Al Jazeera? The English language version content differs widely from the Arabic language content.

Yes an easy and obvious position to take, although not backed up with any evidence I note. You realise that Al Jazeera - not twitter or facebook - was a big driver of the recent political events in the north africa and the mid east, and caused a lot of resentment, anger amongst the current encumbents in these countries? Whilst it's true that the channel is rarely critical of events at home in Qatar, as far as international reporting goes it's been pretty balanced, and doing a lot to promote democracy in the region (Just take a look at their recent coverage of Egypt)

The point about Al Jazeera is that the events they cover are far broader and researched in much more depth than any other station. They have more local staff in more foreign bureaus than any other network, and report on issues and incidents around the world that will pass completely under the radar with the other networks. Obviously a lot of airtime is been given over to the mid-east at the moment but look at the other stuff on their UK schedule today:

- Elections in Haiti again...Could a third round of Presidential elections resolve political stalemate... and what challenges face the new leader?

- Midwives in rural Ethiopia battle to give Ethiopian mothers the chance of a safe birth and a life free from the devastating consequences of Fistula

- Native American Tish Keahna returns to her childhood reservation to see the impact of a language immersion school to restore the Arapaho language.

- Sir David Frost talks to Prime Minister of New Zealand John Key, former UK environment minister Michael Meacher and UNICEF goodwill ambassador Mia Farrow.

- 101 East looks at one of Asia’s most densely populated countries - the Philippines - where family planning remains a controversial issue.

You'll find that all these stories are covered in depth with interviews and opinion from people who are actually qualified to discuss the issues, usually encompassing a variety of views and positions. Stimulating, educational and truly informative.

http://english.aljazeera.net/Services/Schedule/ProgramSchedu...

Edit: Ah - judging from your blog you're from Israel.

>not backed up with any evidence I note

Evidence for Qatar being an Emirate? For the Emir financing AJ? These aren't disputed, AFAIK.

>You realise that Al Jazeera - not twitter or facebook - was a big driver of the recent political events

Definitely.

>caused a lot of resentment, anger amongst the current encumbents in these countries

True. So? Anything there that goes against Qatar's interests?

>They have more local staff in more foreign bureaus than any other network

And they do a lot of quality interviews that aren't rating driven. Because if you have a very rich monarch financing you, you can afford all that. That's my point. How was their coverage of the WikiLeaks docs regarding Qatar?

>Edit: Ah - judging from your blog you're from Israel.

Damn, cover blown! I guess this makes me a Mossad agent, or at best a mouthpiece for the Israeli government. Thanks for doubling my blog's readership though :)

So, out of interest, where do you get your news from?

For me, choice is great. The Murdoch-owned Sky satellite service in the UK has a great selection of news channels:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_channels_on_Sky:_News

It's kinda interesting to flick between the different channels during major events to see how the same event is reported in subtly different ways.

Some people do not watch tv and use the internet to get their news.

Interesting how we use possesive pronouns when talking about news (your, their, my), no?

It is all biased.

I think you're both right. The best way is to watch/read many sources, keeping in mind each has its own biases.

What gets me is that many here seem unable to accept that Al Jazeera is just like other sources, rather than some sacred source of truth and beauty. It's like "skeptics" that believe in conspiracy theories. Disappointing to see this so popular in HN.

As a friend used to say: "choose your own mind control".

You have never watched al-jazeera, have you?

What's wrong with another perspective on things?

Nothing. Another perspective is always good.

He doesn't have cable or satellite.

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