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U.S. Orders Al Jazeera to Register as a Foreign Agent
- QUFB 6y agoAnother day in the world of tyrannical Gulf Monarchs trying to gain the upper hand on each other.
- AtlasLion 6y agoand the big power using them as chess pieces to keep the petrodollar safe.
- dx87 6y agoEven though the reporting can be very biased, Al Jazeera was one of the only news channels we watched in the military, along with BBC. I wish we had similar news agencies in the USA that show actual world news, and aren't just attractive people sitting around a table, gossiping about Democrats/Republicans.
- omgwtfbyobbq 6y agoThe closest I've found is a local public television station that has a block of PBS Newshour, Newsline, DW News, BBC World News, and France 24. It'd be nice if they had Al Jazeera, or even a few more broadcasts from other parts of the world, but I imagine English language broadcasts are rare in certain places.
- 082349872349872 6y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dsWF2prkR8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dsWF2prkR8 is a thing. TIL. further thoughts at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23858477 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23858477 > "If you agree with it, it's truth. If you don't agree, it's propaganda. Pretend that it is all propaganda. See what happens on your analysis reports."
- omgwtfbyobbq 6y agoThanks!
- Raphmedia 6y agoWatching live news with a youtube chat next to it is quite an interesting experience.
- smegger001 6y agoNHK World is also a good option to watch if you get the chance
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- everdrive 6y agoSeconded. Bias, when predictable and understood is not even a bad thing.
- everybodyknows 6y agoIt is a window into the culture of the source -- and often the only one accessible to us. This is not to say that journalists should not strive to report without bias, they should do so, but rather that unbiased coverage is an ideal never rightly claimed as fully achieved.
- glup 6y agoSeconded. It's very biased on mideast politics and especially Palestine/Israeli stuff, but in general they do a really great job of covering the global south and non-OECD countries. A slow news day in the US is generally not a slow news day globally. The global weather is super intriguing. The resolution is so low that I can't figure out for whom it is useful, e.g., "It's raining in sub-Saharan Africa"
- AtlasLion 6y agoOur it could be that it really doesn't fit your views on mideast politics. Western media is totally silent on many issue directly caused by western powers in the region.
- kombucha111 6y agoThey push the Qatari line pretty hard but honestly they are a very good news organization
- hackbinary 6y agoWhy do you watch the BBC? Maybe it is better if you are not in the UK, but it is heavily biased towards the Westminster government, and does not give a fair picture of and to Welsh, Scottish, and (Northern) Irish concerns. I agree that it is less bad than Fox and other Murdoch media.
- tomc1985 6y agoThey still have far fewer dogs in the race for an American consumer. I can imagine that to a lot of those folks, goings-on in the British government aren't that important or interesting and so the bias doesn't really affect anything.
- kombucha111 6y agoI find the BBC to be amazing for everything but UK politics
- AtlasLion 6y agoIt's by far less biased than any western media company.
- jryle70 6y agoBut more biased when it comes to Qatar and their Gulf's adversaries? Just an example: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/06/qatar-gulf-crisis-questions-answered-170606103033599.html https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/06/qatar-gul... Western media are certainly no strangers to bias. The difference is that no matter where you are in the political spectrum you can find media sympathetic to your belief.
- tobsterius 6y agoWe tried, nobody watched. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jazeera_America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jazeera_America
- OpticalWindows 6y agoI suppose I was in the minority watching it. I could see even then that al jazeera (uk) was superior to al jazeera (us) in both content and slant.
- ejanus 6y agoThey fish out dirts in others while their home country is never exposed to their investigative journalism.
- webmaven 6y ago> They fish out dirts in others while their home country is never exposed to their investigative journalism. True, and the same can be said of RT, and many others. This actually seems to be the default configuration for the market in journalism (whether the funding comes from advertising or the state). Afflicting the comfortable even-handedly is a privilege very few news organizations have. There is almost always a hand that feeds them they are reluctant to bite. The best we can reasonably hope for (WRT Aljazeera) is a competing org with a different source of funding.
- sudosysgen 6y agoI think it's a win for us too. As long as there is media from every media it's eventually possible to come to the correct conclusion.
- kombucha111 6y agoComparing RT and al Jazeera is laughable. RT is hot garbage.
- tracer4201 6y agoYou can make the same argument about American news media. Fox News and MSNBC are propaganda machines for their respective political views/parties. I’m not sure what your comment adds to the discussion.
- SpicyLemonZest 6y agoThat's a very different argument. Fox News and MSNBC are biased, no doubt, but the US is definitely "exposed to their investigative journalism". They spend quite a bit of time reporting on problems they see in US government and society.
- actuator 6y agoI think it does make sense. When UAE-Israel peace/recognition deal was announced, Al Jazeera journalists were the ones who seemed to be complaining the most on Twitter about it. They have built a good reputation for journalism and I think they are going to exert that influence for their state, just like I have seen lately even SCMP do. Sure, they do cover lots of parts of the world, and do some really good in-depth reporting but there is a definite bias to their reporting and selectiveness in what they cover, and if it is a state influenced, good to call it out.
- noja 6y agoAl Jazeera is Qatari. UAE and Qatar don't get along well with one another, so why wouldn't they complain about it? If it wasn't for the oil I'd expect the US to be aligned with Qatar.
- actuator 6y agoWhy would US be aligned with Qatar over UAE? I don't find much difference in UAE and Qatar. The whole 2022 FIFA world cup being held in Qatar has been a blot on the sport from possible corruption in bidding to gross worker(human) right violations in construction. > why wouldn't they complain about it? Wouldn't it be nice if journalists try to stay unbiased and do factual reporting and not be a broadcast arm for their state's interests. If they can't, it seems appropriate to brand them as a foreign mission.
- MrPandaRabbit 6y agoPersonally, Al Jazeera English has been a valuable source of counter propaganda to the hegemonic western media companies I usually end up getting my news from (NYT, Guardian, Atlantic, etc. on the liberal end and WaPo, BBC, etc. on the more neutral/conservative end). I think it’s fair to say they are more directly aligned with Qatar and don’t do as good a job criticizing their owners as John Oliver with ATT. But, I cannot find anyone, not even BBC, that does as good a job at covering grassroots organization efforts and local stories from South America, Africa, the middle-east (particularly Palestinian stories), South Asia, and parts of East Asia. It has been refreshing to see humanizing perspectives of people who are usually cast as ‘the other’ or ‘backwards’ implicitly or explicitly in western media. I wonder if Australian, European, or Israeli news/media companies ever have to register as foreign agents.
- xster 6y agomintpressnews.com and thegrayzone.com do decent primary-sourceable journalism on the global south I find.
- MrPandaRabbit 6y agoThanks, will definitely try them out. I find The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, ProPublica, and maybe controversially, The Intercept do good primary source journalism in the US.
- xster 6y agoProPublica is definitely in my bookmarks too. Things like The Intercept and Project Syndicate are so hit or miss depending on the author. The Intercept was so solid when it just started. Then gradually you start seeing Greenwald start arguing with all the other corporate journalists from WaPo and NYT they're hiring en masse on Twitter...
- bpodgursky 6y agoIf you think the Atlantic is on the "liberal end" and the WaPo is on the "neutral/conservative" end of the news spectrum, I think you have a fuzzy understanding of the political divides in US news sources.
- disown 6y agoOn whose orders did we do this and why now? Of course... Israel. For all the talk about foreign meddling, we never hear anything about israel. You here endless propaganda about russia, china, etc, but never about israel. I'm sure putin and xi wish they had the influence in the US that israel has. Has part of a presidential election ever kicked off in moscow or beijing like trump did with israel? Can you imagine the lunatic hysteria it would have kicked off in traditional and social media? Is there any country, other than israel, that you cannot boycott as an american. You can boycott china. You can boycott russia. Heck you can even boycott america as an american. But you can't boycott israel. https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech/rights-protesters/new-israel-anti-boycott-act-still-unconstitutional https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech/rights-protesters/new-... Trump, Pompeo and his administration openly state that Trump exists to save Israel. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/pompeo-suggests-god-sent-trump-save-israel-n986136 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/pompeo-suggests... Not to save america, but israel. Imagine if they say they exist to save china or russia. We'd call that treason. Yes, lets investigate russian and chinese foreign meddling. But lets not stop there. Lets go deeper. Saudi meddling and all the way up to israeli meddling. Edit: Insta downvote. Interesting.
- thesagan 6y agoYou’re gonna get downvoted to hell.
- bigphishy 6y agoThis is interesting to note and more light should be shown on this discussion.
- existencebox 6y agoI have not posted on this account for many months for non tech topics, because discourse on HN has taken an unfortunate turn over the last few years. This is a fantastic example of it, (the greying of this comment) and so incenses me that I'm willing to speak up in defense of it. There are active measures to _prohibit boycott of israel_ in the US. This is A Fact. [0] Multiple states, as well as the ACLU, have issued rulings declaring this unconstitutional, but it blazes on. [1] We are being pushed to give up FUNDAMENTAL LIBERTIES with almost no meaningful awareness, and anyone who speaks against it is immediately labeled an antisemite. As someone married to an orthodox jew, I will say openly: the fact that these are scary moves is even discussed within _our family_ and is by no means a dogwhistle for hate, so why is it so aggressively silenced outside? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Anti-Boycott_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Anti-Boycott_Act [1] https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech/congress-laws-suppressing-boycotts-israel-are-unconstitutional-sincerely-three https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech/congress-laws-suppress...
- ed25519FUUU 6y agoForeign news, even state controlled (RT, for example) is always valuable. Partly because we know those news outlets are biased and politically motivated, and adjust our own perception accordingly. Though the glorification of suicide bombing and the killing of US soldiers on Al Jazeera always left a very bad taste in my mouth circa 2003-2004. The problem is that our news outlets are biased and politically motivated as well, it's just the pressure comes from money and "access". And we don't admit it to ourselves. A simple example is a person or company will go to a specific outlet to break negative news so they can get a head start on the story. For access to the scoop, the outlet helps write a truthful but "friendly" narrative. This happens all of the time with large businesses also, and it's evident in the headlines. Where did you think all of that PR consulting money goes?
- aorth 6y ago> glorification of suicide bombing and the killing of US soldiers on Al Jazeera always left a very bad taste in my mouth. Are we talking about the same Al Jazeera? I've never seen such glorification. I am an American living internationally for a long time now and, where I used to value BBC World, I have preferred Al Jazeera English for close to ten years at least.
- BeetleB 6y agoI think this was mostly perceived to be on their Arabic station, not the English one. In those days people I know who watched the Arabic Al-Jazeera said it was a whole different channel than the English one (in terms of bias, etc). (Although I didn't hear anything specifically about support for suicide bombings).
- UglyToad 6y agoI'm curious about the "glorification of suicide bombing" you mention. I mostly watch Al-Jazeera in the UK and my understanding is that Al-Jazeera English should be considered an almost entirely separate entity from the other (Arabic language?) Al-Jazeera that is regarded to have ties to the Muslim brotherhood etc. From my perspective with the pro Qatari bias in mind Al-Jazeera English is one of the only quality news stations available; especially since, due to their bias, they will focus on underreported stories such as the Rohingya. Are the issues you mention relevant to the English language channel?
- catmistake 6y agoThis administration's xenophobia is really starting to annoy. But the silver lining is that at least President Trump and his supporters have all but guaranteed 16 years of Democrats in the White House. Maybe the damage he has caused in just 4 years can be repaired in that time.
- Solocomplex 6y agoDon't assume that. Everyone still has to vote to make it happen.
- meddlepal 6y ago> Everyone still has to vote to make it happen. More like just Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Wisconsin will decide everything. This system sucks.
- nightski 6y agoThat's a bunch of baloney though. The only reason it comes down to those states is because the other states have already decided. WI does not matter more than CA, that is for sure. If a Republican ever won CA it would be a FAR bigger deal than any little swing state.
- satya71 6y agoAl Jazeera is my go to channel for on the ground reporting in places where few dare to go -- Syria, Kashmir, NWFP in Pakistan, ...
- dirtyid 6y agoPart of the Israel/UAE/Qatar drama. USCENTCOM is hosted in Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, IIRC it's US largest forward base in the region. I doubt US plans to move it to UAE. Doesn't seem like smart diplomacy but not unsound gamble for current admin's ME foreign policy goals. Trumps fishing hard for that Nobel Peace prize.
- colordrops 6y agoOn a tangential note, it's bizarre how only certain twitter accounts are marked "state media" and all western media accounts (e.g. BBC) are left alone.
- ciarannolan 6y agoWhich ones are marked "state media"? AJE is not: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish https://twitter.com/AJEnglish
- colordrops 6y agohttps://twitter.com/XHNews https://twitter.com/XHNews I've seen individual Chinese accounts without any publicly known state affiliation marked as well.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- pmachinery 6y agoMedia in states that are on the permanent UN Security Council, that aren't Britain, France and the USA. Twitter claims their rule includes them, but if Voice of America doesn't count as "state-affiliated media" then what would?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- slim 6y agoRT and Sputnik news have it. But not "voice of america" https://mobile.twitter.com/VOANews/status/1293306949031911426 https://mobile.twitter.com/VOANews/status/129330694903191142...
- SpicyLemonZest 6y agoReally? That's pretty weird on Twitter's part, cause I know Youtube marks VOA as state media.
- kingwill101 6y agoI'm from the Caribbean and I find I learn a lot more about what's happening in the world. For years I've watched BBC and CNN international and found them way too biased to from a properly unbiased view about most stories.
- exabrial 6y agoShame they don't do that for Fox News and CNN as well.
- cwwc 6y agoFull text: The Justice Department ordered a digital news network based in the United States and owned by Al Jazeera, the media company backed by the royal family of Qatar, to register as a foreign agent, surprising a high-level delegation from Doha just as officials from the two nations met to strengthen diplomatic and economic alliances. Al Jazeera suggested the move was part of a separate deal, signed on Tuesday and brokered by the Trump administration, in which the United Arab Emirates, a Qatari rival, normalized diplomatic relations with Israel. The Emirates ambassador to the United States said that was not true. In a letter dated Monday that was obtained by The New York Times, the Justice Department said that AJ+, a network that primarily produces short videos for social media in English as well as Arabic, French and Spanish, engages in “political activities” on behalf of Qatar’s government and should therefore be subject to the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Qatar, the letter said, provides the network’s funding and appoints its board of directors. “Journalism designed to influence American perceptions of a domestic policy issue or a foreign nation’s activities or its leadership qualifies as ‘political activities’ under the statutory definition,” said the letter, which was signed by Jay I. Bratt, the chief of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence division, “even,” the letter added, “if it views itself as ‘balanced.’”