Al Jazeera

Grafitti memorializing Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot and killed by Israeli Defense forces in the West Bank

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Al Jazeera (Arabic الجزيرة "The Island") is an international news network based in Qatar, broadcasting news from the perspective of the Islamic world. It provides in-depth news on world events. While it is government-owned,^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]} it is less biased compared to other propaganda-heavy news stations in the region,^{[note 1]} and is actually the one most sympathetic to the United States and the West, perhaps because it was founded by former CNN employees.

Some American news organizations and bloggers allege that Al Jazeera, as an organization, is a "terrorist sympathizer,"^[7][8] although this may be sometimes because they view anyone who looks vaguely foreign or who broadcasts tapes from terrorists as terrorist sympathizers. Conservapedia,^[9] Metapedia,^[10] and Rightpedia's^[11] articles on Al Jazeera are basically rants, for example.

Most people in the "international affairs"^{[note 2]} business find the online English-language version invaluable. Even conservatives working in the field will read it, though often quietly.

Al Jazeera America[edit]

Hasan in 2012

As Current TV was going belly up with falling ratings and revenue, it ended up being sold to Al Jazeera, broadcasting rights and all. Almost everything about Current, barring about half the staff, was repurposed and relaunched as Al Jazeera America, a surprisingly and stunningly well-done news channel. In less than a year it's taken two Peabody Awards and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for programs aired — really.^[12]

As one writer put it "Welcome back, real cable news."^[13]

Unfortunately, AJAM shut its doors on April 30^th, 2016 and instead Al Jazeera English expanded its online news production in North America.^[14] Its online division (at least) closed early on February 26^th.^[15]

There might be something cursed about that old Current TV spot, after all…

Mehdi Hasan[edit]

Award-winning British journalist Mehdi Hasan hosts two of the most well-received AJ programs, Head to Head^[16] and Upfront^[17]. Among Hasan's more notable interviews were Edward Snowden^[18], Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard^[19], Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked,^[20] former director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, Michael Flynn,^[21] and a surprisingly tough grilling of Richard Dawkins (surprising to Dawkins and his fans).^[22]

In late December of 2015, Hasan — a Muslim whose parents are from India — interviewed India's Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary, Ram Madhav in a segment titled, "Is Modi’s India flirting with fascism?" Hasan grilled Madhav on multiple issues including religious intolerance in India; the Hindu Madhav advised Hasan he should worry about "your ISIS", to which Hasan took strong exception.^[23]

After the interview grabbed headlines in India, Hasan wrote on Twitter that in the 30 odd interviews he had done with Al Jazeera, nothing got a Twitter response such as this one. He said that the interview must have really “hurt” as “Hindu nationalist trolls” have tried to smear him as a closet Islamist, a Pakistani and an ISIS supporter in the last 48 hours. One of the first abusive tweets that Hasan retweeted was one from Canadian writer Tarek Fatah, who wrote that Hasan was a “Pakistani Islamist” and the studio audience were allegedly handpicked to badger Madhav.

Sunni Arab bias[edit]

Being based in Qatar, an autocratic Sunni Muslim state, it is often criticized for bias against Shi'a Muslims and for supporting Sunni organisations ranging from the Muslim Brotherhood to the government of Qatar. It was accused of encouraging Sunni protests and uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt in the Arab Spring while suppressing news of Shi'a uprisings against the government of Bahrain, a Qatari ally; criticizing Iran (a traditional rival of Gulf Arabs); and under-reporting atrocities committed by Sunnis against Shi'a Muslims.^[24] As with most claims of media bias, such allegations are hard to prove, even if one considers them bad things.

Notes[edit]

References[edit]