In its new issue, Newsweek puts this as #4 on their list of “31 Ways To Get Smarter In 2012”:
4. Get News from Al Jazeera
Don’t shut yourself out from new ideas. A 2009 study found that viewers of Al Jazeera English were more open-minded than people who got their news from CNN International and BBC World.
That’s a nice idea. Someone should tell my cable company, who make me pay way too much for the privilege of having Fox News Channel.
How much do you pay for the corporate left version of Fox (MSNBC)?
Would have made a lot more sense to say:
“Watch less (preferably NO) cable news at all.”
Absolute worst place to get your news. Infotainment crap.
Actually, I don’t pay any extra for the truth on MSNBC – ulike you who pays very much to hear Fox’s lies and distortions.
We should require a class in our schools on how to listen and evaluate truth – clearly a lot of you weren’t taught that.
It’s true, Al Jazeera and BBC are the best out there. Dono what happened to the US news, but is simply isn’t there today.
I think it should be pretty obvious that if Newsweek is hawking Al Jazeera, there’s been a change someplace along the line. This article and several others on the web, give a clear explanation of that change:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/13/whatever-happened-to-al-jazeera/
@gregory stricherz
thanks for that link. i had not read that but the first thing i thought when i read this headline was “gee, newsweek must have bought some of al jezeera”
There’s no such thing as a “corporate left,” Shane. MSNBC is corporate, to be sure, but Left? They “lean” towards good sense (mostly), but “Corporate Democratic Sorta” is a little closer to the truth.
Gregory, I didn’t follow the link; do you mean to say Newsweek has an interest in Al Jazeera? I’ll check out Counterpunch soon enough, time permitting.
For almost a year and a half, AlJazeera has been the mouthpiece for right-wing Qatari government officials, instigating the coup and invasion in Libya and formenting another such distortion and takeover in Syria. The agency was once a truly balanced source of journalism and analysis, around 2002-2006, but those guys got fired and the new news crrw is definitely corrupt and very biased!
Note Newsweek’s really infantile error of logic: since people who watch English Al Jazeera are more broad minded, better informed, etc. etc. than the general mob, therefore it would be good for the general mob to be made to watch Al Jazeera.
When the wind-indicator points forward we can sail smoothly before the wind; therefore we should install a titanium wind-indicator which will always point forward.
The more common variations of this are “Teachers who make lesson plans are better teachers, so all teachers should be forced to make lesson plans” and “Teachers with broader vocabularies have more successful students, so all teachers should be forced to improve their vocabularies.”
Feh!
-dlj.
Actually the best sites to get closer to the truth is RT which is now on dish or at RT.com or PressTV.ir.
You can also get your choice of 1000’s of news & TV broadcasts in English and any other language you want is Livestation.com it is a free service which also has a premium service. Al Jazeera is available on Livestation a is PressTV, RT, BBC all live broadcasts.
Al Jazeera is owned by the Qatar government The nation of Qatar is basically a USA base & fuel depot masquerading as a county. Qatar’s government is an absolute monarchy. In recent years Al Jazeera has modified its programing to be more acceptable to USA & Israelis governmental philosophy. Al Jazeera, unlike USA media cover news & current events around the world & in USA as RT.com & PressTV.ir do. However both RT,com & PressTV,ir also provide the viewer with live debates with all points of view represented and given an equal opportunity to present & defend their position. Al Jazeera follows USA corporate media where the philosophy of USA & Israel dominates discussions & alternative views are not tolerated. PressTV & RT always have USA & UK analysts & academics in every discussion.
So while its great that Newsweek recognizes that USA corporate broadcasters aren’t doing their job and recommends Al Jazeera it should also name other foreign news networks like CCTV which is also on Dish. BBC international is no different than watching USA corporate news networks they preach the UK, USA, Israelis views not necessarily the truth
Nothing wrong with listening to a variety of news outlets.I listen to Al Jezeera.Horrible sometimes .Sometimes not.I also tap into Iranian news(from farsi translations)once or twice a week.God more Americans should do that.Real eye opener.If you have a few core values and are not a gullible mook you will easily see the piles of bull dung.
I so much respect europe for their freedom of speech but it seems its all gone with the banning of press tv.
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offencesFor abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.