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| In defense of al-Jazeera |
| 2003-03-30 |
| Ziad (Live from Kuwait) has a post that's favorable to al-Jazeera. I agree with him, as I've said before. What the Arab world needs is a thousand al-Jazeeras and a lot fewer "ministries of information," not for al-Jazeera to be shut down. If you don't like the content on one independent station, you can flip channels to another. If you don't like the press releases handed out by the ministry you can... uhhh... go whistle. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #2 I've read that a couple new 24 Arabic news channels have been set up recently, one funded by the Saudis, and the other by the UAE. I'm not sure how 'independent' that would make them, but al-Jazeera is funded by the Emir of Qatar, so perhaps it balances out. |
| Posted by: Paul Moloney 2003-03-30 18:26:09 |
| #1 Agreed, Fred. But so long as the number of independent channels amounts to "one", and that one panders to its audience's pre-existing bias, it serves only to legitimise the disindormation emanating from corrupt governments. On a similar tack, I read today that Chirac wants a "CNN a la Francaise" set up in a matter of months to rival the Anglophonic global corruptors CNN and BBC (well, he's got a point, but somehow I don't think the French version would be more pro-sanity). I guess it will give the Arab Street a second channel. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2003-03-30 17:33:26 |