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I believed they were sucking up to the Qatari regime until late 2009 when they nearly caused themselves to be de-funded after exposing that 20% of the country's
by mahmud 16y ago
I believed they were sucking up to the Qatari regime until late 2009 when they nearly caused themselves to be de-funded after exposing that 20% of the country's oil exports were unaccounted for.
They are censored, by a tiny emirate which I don't care about, and even then they test limits of their own sandbox there. It's not like Qatar has a huge global influence and alliances it must watch over. And their own self-censorship regarding Qatar is one of omission, rather than, say, creative reporting.
Al-Jazeera is good for us because it holds the four major forces in the region accountable and on their toes: the regimes, Israel & America, Iran, and Saudi Arabia and its Jihadi minions.
Al-Jazeera angered everyone when it broadcast a program calling the Arabic language obselete and said university students should be taught in English to compete in the global economy. Stuff like that doesn't buy you a lot of friends.
- abnnba 16y agoDo you have links for the AJ stories regarding the 20% missing oil and their critique of Arabic language's current state? I couldn't find them on Google. Thanks!
- mahmud 16y agoWith much gusto :-) I subscribe to al-Jazeera and listen to their podcasts. If you speak Arabic, here are the "Op-Ed" episodes (they're both transcribed, so paste into translator if you don't speak Arabic): The realities of the Arabic Language واقع اللغة العربية http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E85691E0-6E17-4941-B7A4-29D800E3AEAC http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E85691E0-6E17-4941-B7A4-2... I'm trying to remember which program had the expose on oil revenues. Give me a few more minutes. Update: Here is another episode (not the one I have in mind) largely devoted to bad-mouthing their sponsor: The Gulf Cooperation Council and the steps toward reform. http://www.aljazeera.net/channel/archive/archive?ArchiveId=1031905 http://www.aljazeera.net/channel/archive/archive?ArchiveId=1... In fact, typing the few keywords into their site's search returns overwhelming results of content critical of the Qatari crown.
- mahmud 16y agoP.S. If you're interested in tracking al-Jazeera and mideast media in general, I can scrape program titles and headline from the last 5 years and run that through a translation API. It's very prophetic of Al Jazeera to broadcast a program titled "Why don't the Arab masses rise up and revolt against the regimes" less than 2 months ago.
- deadmansshoes 16y agoA tiny emirate who's leaders just managed to acquire the world's biggest sporting event, and are trying to buy one of Europe's best known football teams.
- deadmansshoes 16y agoMy point being, writing off any news bias as irrelevant as Qatari politics has no influence on the world stage is ridiculous as Qatar are moving towards centre stage.