4 ms·

It is equally likely that they were being forced to be biased in BBC, but chose not and left? You do realize that many of the Al Jazeera people are Brits?

by ajays 16y ago

yummyfajitas 16y ago
I'm only responding to the point that since the people are the same, the bias levels should also be the same. As for specific bias at Al Jazeera, the main thing that jumped out at me when I watched it is simple racism. Arab minority being oppressed by non-Arab majority is a major human rights crisis. Anyone who fights back is a martyr. When a non-Arab underclass is oppressed by Arabs (or Farsis, they seem to be brothers in arms), meh. If they fight back, they are criminals. My biggest WTF moment was reading an article about Kurds asserting their right to return to Kirkuk and take their land back from settlers. Somehow, the article managed to compare the Kurds to Israelis (rather than to Palestinians). I'll try to dig it up. That's the sort of thing that I think most western editors would frown upon, except maybe at the Stormfront Newsletter.
- ajays 16y ago
  You do realize that American media is quite biased too? I'm not even talking about Fox News; even the so-called "mainstream" media is quite biased. Case in point: whenever it's a cute Caucasian woman who's missing, every news networks covers it; but when it's a woman of color, then you barely hear a peep. I mean, we're still talking about Natalie Holloway. There's even a term for it now: "Missing white woman syndrome". Meanwhile, waterboarding is called "torture" for 40 years, and then suddenly it becomes an "enhanced interrogation technique" when we start doing it. The point is: Al Jazeera appears "biased" to people because they're not biased in the way we want them to be. You claim that Al Jazeera is biased against non-Arabs. How do you then explain the fact that Al Jazeera was just kicked out of Morocco for being biased towards Western Sahara? Please keep in mind that Al Jazeera is a network. Just like any other network, there are people there who are biased in various directions. You can't just cherry-pick reports and paint the whole network with "bias".
  - yummyfajitas 16y ago
    You do realize that American media is quite biased too? See here http://searchyc.com/yummyfajitas+media http://searchyc.com/yummyfajitas+media for assorted posts by me which include swipes at the media for bias (usually while making unrelated points). Look, I'm only trying to point out that "same reporters" != "same bias level/direction". I'll leave it to others to debate the relative merits of Al Jazeera vs MSNBC. It's irrelevant to me, I don't watch any of them.
    - ajays 16y ago
      Somehow, "I don't watch any of them" seems to contradict your earlier statement: "As for specific bias at Al Jazeera, the main thing that jumped out at me when I watched it is simple racism." I have watched Al Jazeera very occasionally. As well as Link TV. While I may find some specific parts odious, there are other programs there that are shaking up the system in the Middle East. Al Jazeera is hated as much in Washington as it is in Riyadh. This, to me, is a good thing: if they're pissing people on both sides off, then they must be doing something right.
      - yummyfajitas 16y ago
        I could similarly make a statement: "I don't vote." That would not contradict a statement that "when I voted, I voted for fringe candidates." The key is grammatical tense: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_tense http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_tense I was a news junkie from about 9/11/01 until roughly 2005. I don't bother anymore. Too much work to get truth, too little reward. (The same applies to voting.)

It is equally likely that they were being forced to be biased in BBC, but chose not and left? You do realize that many of the Al Jazeera people are Brits?

by ajays 16y ago

It is equally likely that they were being forced to be biased in BBC, but chose not and left? You do realize that many of the Al Jazeera people are Brits?

yummyfajitas 16y ago

I'm only responding to the point that since the people are the same, the bias levels should also be the same. As for specific bias at Al Jazeera, the main thing that jumped out at me when I watched it is simple racism. Arab minority being oppressed by non-Arab majority is a major human rights crisis. Anyone who fights back is a martyr. When a non-Arab underclass is oppressed by Arabs (or Farsis, they seem to be brothers in arms), meh. If they fight back, they are criminals. My biggest WTF moment was reading an article about Kurds asserting their right to return to Kirkuk and take their land back from settlers. Somehow, the article managed to compare the Kurds to Israelis (rather than to Palestinians). I'll try to dig it up. That's the sort of thing that I think most western editors would frown upon, except maybe at the Stormfront Newsletter.

ajays 16y ago
You do realize that American media is quite biased too? I'm not even talking about Fox News; even the so-called "mainstream" media is quite biased. Case in point: whenever it's a cute Caucasian woman who's missing, every news networks covers it; but when it's a woman of color, then you barely hear a peep. I mean, we're still talking about Natalie Holloway. There's even a term for it now: "Missing white woman syndrome". Meanwhile, waterboarding is called "torture" for 40 years, and then suddenly it becomes an "enhanced interrogation technique" when we start doing it. The point is: Al Jazeera appears "biased" to people because they're not biased in the way we want them to be. You claim that Al Jazeera is biased against non-Arabs. How do you then explain the fact that Al Jazeera was just kicked out of Morocco for being biased towards Western Sahara? Please keep in mind that Al Jazeera is a network. Just like any other network, there are people there who are biased in various directions. You can't just cherry-pick reports and paint the whole network with "bias".
- yummyfajitas 16y ago
  You do realize that American media is quite biased too? See here http://searchyc.com/yummyfajitas+media http://searchyc.com/yummyfajitas+media for assorted posts by me which include swipes at the media for bias (usually while making unrelated points). Look, I'm only trying to point out that "same reporters" != "same bias level/direction". I'll leave it to others to debate the relative merits of Al Jazeera vs MSNBC. It's irrelevant to me, I don't watch any of them.
  - ajays 16y ago
    Somehow, "I don't watch any of them" seems to contradict your earlier statement: "As for specific bias at Al Jazeera, the main thing that jumped out at me when I watched it is simple racism." I have watched Al Jazeera very occasionally. As well as Link TV. While I may find some specific parts odious, there are other programs there that are shaking up the system in the Middle East. Al Jazeera is hated as much in Washington as it is in Riyadh. This, to me, is a good thing: if they're pissing people on both sides off, then they must be doing something right.
    - yummyfajitas 16y ago
      I could similarly make a statement: "I don't vote." That would not contradict a statement that "when I voted, I voted for fringe candidates." The key is grammatical tense: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_tense http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_tense I was a news junkie from about 9/11/01 until roughly 2005. I don't bother anymore. Too much work to get truth, too little reward. (The same applies to voting.)