4 ms·

Al-Jazeera just means "The Island" in Arabic. What's off putting about something called "The Island"?

rm_-rf_slash 11y ago
I never knew that. Most Americans won't even get that close. You're trying to use logic to argue a problem of emotion and personal bias. That never works.
mikeash 11y ago
The Arabic is what's off-putting.
- gotchange 11y ago
  Do you feel the same when you hear "Alcohol, Algebra, Alchemy, Algorithm, Albuquerque ...etc" or you're just turned off by "Aljazeera"?
  - mikeash 11y ago
    Albuquerque is a pretty tenuous example. Anyway, I don't know. I'm not talking about me, just saying this is how a lot of people react.
    - gotchange 11y ago
      No, it's not tenuous. Americans (Spanish settlers/Mexicans?) imported the name from Spanish (Castellano) and Spanish got it from Arabic and the list I made is just arbitrary and there are many many more Arabic origin words starting with "Al" that made their way to English and don't seem to have the same negative effect on the English speaker as claimed by you and the other poster.
      - mikeash 11y ago
        The etymology is not certain, but Albuquerque looks much more likely to be Latin than Arabic. As for the rest, well, there's a difference between English words with Arabic origins and Arabic words that haven't been appropriated into English. You can dislike the way people treat it all you want, and say it makes no sense (and I'd agree), but if you argue with how it works then you're basically yelling at the clouds.
        gotchange 11y ago
        They're are other places in Badajoz with the "AL" prefix and they're Arabic influenced so it's more likely that Albuquerque was as well than being Latin derived but my main argument stays the same that if English speaking xenophobes or bigots have any problem with the Arabic definite article "Al ال", they should cease using those words in their language to avoid public embarrassment and being labelled hypocrites.
        mikeash 11y ago
        What's the point of that main argument? You asked a question about why certain unreasonable feel a certain way, you got an answer, and now you're arguing with the answer because you think it's unreasonable. That's silly.
        rm_-rf_slash 11y ago
        Hypothetical example: let's say there was no Hitler or Hirohito but somehow Benito Mussolini - Il Duce, the leader - conquered Europe and conducted human rights abuses equal to or greater than the other Axis powers, all while expanding Italian territory through conquest. Let's also say that you live in the Middle East, which for a while was Roman territory, the empire that Mussolini attempted to ressurect. You would have a good reason to fear Italian conquest and be distrustful of Italy in general, even if Italians themselves are generally amicable and the people in conquered territories resent the regime. Now you hear that a major Italian news company - Il Notizie, the news - is establishing a pan-Arab station, Il Notizie Arabia. Would you trust it to be fair and balanced? Would you trust it not to have a subversive agenda?
      - freehunter 11y ago
        It's not claimed, its real. Facebook and Twitter have this great thing where you can see into the minds of other people, and Al-Jazeera was trending the other day, so you got to see lots of people talking about it. Lots of hate, literally 100% because the name sounds Arabic. Hate doesn't care about entomology. We're talking about a country that renamed "french fries" to "freedom fries" to protest one of our oldest allies, when the "fries" aren't even "french" to begin with. Albuquerque doesn't sound Arabic. Americans are familiar with it, it just sounds funny, maybe Mexican, but it's still in America. Al-Jazeera has an Arabic logo, Arabic anchors, and an Arabic name. These are people who key in on the president's middle name of Hussein and use that to claim he's a Muslim terrorist. You honestly think they wouldn't blink an eye at an Arabic news channel? People are perhaps a bit more xenophobic than you think they are.
        gotchange 11y ago
        Anecdotally speaking, I had no idea that the average American was so close minded like this that he would reject a channel just based on its foreign name. This level of language chauvinism is not healthy at all. However, I truly believe that Aljazeera punched above their weight when they ventured into the US market and that they pulled the plug quite early for any meaningful results to materialize but I think that they could find some solace in the fact that other established players like BBC would struggle considerably if they entered the US market to make headway in this saturated and hyper-competitive market.
        freehunter 11y ago
        Yes, the problem is they didn't get enough viewers. Lots of reasons for that. The people who are going to care about high-quality journalism and not care about the negative connotations of an Arabic ownership are less likely to subscribe to cable, the only place to find Al Jazeera. Conversely, the majority of people who watch cable news tend to be older and more conservative, which is why Fox News has the number one viewership among cable news channels. Most people who watch Fox News will fit into the xenophobic demographic I mentioned above. If you don't think the "average American" (in this case "American" is defined as "someone who watches American cable news channels", not actually the average American) is that closed minded, remember that in 2012, Fox News had 2 million viewers compared to CNN's >700,000. Fox News has more viewers than every other cable news channel combined. [1] It's not necessarily about the language, it's about the connotations. If you watch Al Jazeera, you're watching the terrorist propaganda. To the majority of people who watch cable news, that's where the thinking ends. You're right, it's not healthy, it's destroying our nation and the entire world with it. Liberals are going to be pretty happy with NPR. Younger people are going to get their news from social media, not from cable. Conservatives are going to be very happy with Fox News. Older people aren't going to want to switch their news channel to something unproven. Al Jazeera has no audience in the US if they're trying to break into the cable news market. [1] http://press.foxnews.com/2012/12/fox-news-channel-dominates-cable-news-viewership-for-11th-consecutive-year/ http://press.foxnews.com/2012/12/fox-news-channel-dominates-...

I never knew that. Most Americans won't even get that close. You're trying to use logic to argue a problem of emotion and personal bias. That never works.

mikeash 11y ago

The Arabic is what's off-putting.

gotchange 11y ago
Do you feel the same when you hear "Alcohol, Algebra, Alchemy, Algorithm, Albuquerque ...etc" or you're just turned off by "Aljazeera"?
- mikeash 11y ago
  Albuquerque is a pretty tenuous example. Anyway, I don't know. I'm not talking about me, just saying this is how a lot of people react.
  - gotchange 11y ago
    No, it's not tenuous. Americans (Spanish settlers/Mexicans?) imported the name from Spanish (Castellano) and Spanish got it from Arabic and the list I made is just arbitrary and there are many many more Arabic origin words starting with "Al" that made their way to English and don't seem to have the same negative effect on the English speaker as claimed by you and the other poster.
    - mikeash 11y ago
      The etymology is not certain, but Albuquerque looks much more likely to be Latin than Arabic. As for the rest, well, there's a difference between English words with Arabic origins and Arabic words that haven't been appropriated into English. You can dislike the way people treat it all you want, and say it makes no sense (and I'd agree), but if you argue with how it works then you're basically yelling at the clouds.
      - gotchange 11y ago
        They're are other places in Badajoz with the "AL" prefix and they're Arabic influenced so it's more likely that Albuquerque was as well than being Latin derived but my main argument stays the same that if English speaking xenophobes or bigots have any problem with the Arabic definite article "Al ال", they should cease using those words in their language to avoid public embarrassment and being labelled hypocrites.
        mikeash 11y ago
        What's the point of that main argument? You asked a question about why certain unreasonable feel a certain way, you got an answer, and now you're arguing with the answer because you think it's unreasonable. That's silly.
        rm_-rf_slash 11y ago
        Hypothetical example: let's say there was no Hitler or Hirohito but somehow Benito Mussolini - Il Duce, the leader - conquered Europe and conducted human rights abuses equal to or greater than the other Axis powers, all while expanding Italian territory through conquest. Let's also say that you live in the Middle East, which for a while was Roman territory, the empire that Mussolini attempted to ressurect. You would have a good reason to fear Italian conquest and be distrustful of Italy in general, even if Italians themselves are generally amicable and the people in conquered territories resent the regime. Now you hear that a major Italian news company - Il Notizie, the news - is establishing a pan-Arab station, Il Notizie Arabia. Would you trust it to be fair and balanced? Would you trust it not to have a subversive agenda?
    - freehunter 11y ago
      It's not claimed, its real. Facebook and Twitter have this great thing where you can see into the minds of other people, and Al-Jazeera was trending the other day, so you got to see lots of people talking about it. Lots of hate, literally 100% because the name sounds Arabic. Hate doesn't care about entomology. We're talking about a country that renamed "french fries" to "freedom fries" to protest one of our oldest allies, when the "fries" aren't even "french" to begin with. Albuquerque doesn't sound Arabic. Americans are familiar with it, it just sounds funny, maybe Mexican, but it's still in America. Al-Jazeera has an Arabic logo, Arabic anchors, and an Arabic name. These are people who key in on the president's middle name of Hussein and use that to claim he's a Muslim terrorist. You honestly think they wouldn't blink an eye at an Arabic news channel? People are perhaps a bit more xenophobic than you think they are.
      - gotchange 11y ago
        Anecdotally speaking, I had no idea that the average American was so close minded like this that he would reject a channel just based on its foreign name. This level of language chauvinism is not healthy at all. However, I truly believe that Aljazeera punched above their weight when they ventured into the US market and that they pulled the plug quite early for any meaningful results to materialize but I think that they could find some solace in the fact that other established players like BBC would struggle considerably if they entered the US market to make headway in this saturated and hyper-competitive market.
        freehunter 11y ago
        Yes, the problem is they didn't get enough viewers. Lots of reasons for that. The people who are going to care about high-quality journalism and not care about the negative connotations of an Arabic ownership are less likely to subscribe to cable, the only place to find Al Jazeera. Conversely, the majority of people who watch cable news tend to be older and more conservative, which is why Fox News has the number one viewership among cable news channels. Most people who watch Fox News will fit into the xenophobic demographic I mentioned above. If you don't think the "average American" (in this case "American" is defined as "someone who watches American cable news channels", not actually the average American) is that closed minded, remember that in 2012, Fox News had 2 million viewers compared to CNN's >700,000. Fox News has more viewers than every other cable news channel combined. [1] It's not necessarily about the language, it's about the connotations. If you watch Al Jazeera, you're watching the terrorist propaganda. To the majority of people who watch cable news, that's where the thinking ends. You're right, it's not healthy, it's destroying our nation and the entire world with it. Liberals are going to be pretty happy with NPR. Younger people are going to get their news from social media, not from cable. Conservatives are going to be very happy with Fox News. Older people aren't going to want to switch their news channel to something unproven. Al Jazeera has no audience in the US if they're trying to break into the cable news market. [1] http://press.foxnews.com/2012/12/fox-news-channel-dominates-cable-news-viewership-for-11th-consecutive-year/ http://press.foxnews.com/2012/12/fox-news-channel-dominates-...