4 ms·

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 d

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-...

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-...