News

There is a story in The Washington Times on July 9th about Al-Jazeera:

‘We aired lies’: Al-Jazeera staff quit over biased Egypt coverage

The Washington Times? That doesn't ring a bell. I've heard of the Washington Post. Maybe we should check out this Times outfit, see if they are legit. Turns out they are sort of legit, about like USA Today. There are two big newspapers in Washington D.C. Let's compare:

• The Washington Post has 800,000 subscribers, is a public company traded on the NYSE.
• The Washington Times has 100,000 subscribers, is owned by the Moonies.

Digging a little deeper I find that the day before Al-Jazeera was kicked out of a news conference in Egypt. Did the Post have anything to say about Al-Jazeera staff in Egypt quitting? Yes, they did: one line statement at the end of a story.

Al-Jazeera is a privately held arab news organization based in Qatar. They recently bought Current TV from former US Vice President Al Gore for $500 million. Former President George Bush famously named Al Jazeera a “terrorist organization,” as did former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

I've seen some of their stuff on the web and in general I thought it was pretty good. According to Glenn Greenwald (columnist for the US Version of The Guardian, the UK news outfit that Jennifer sometimes writes for), Al Jazeera is "constantly demonized in the American media." Once hailed as a democratizing force in a region dominated by government-owned or -controlled news media, al-Jazeera’s independence from the politics of its Qatari owners has been challenged in recent years.

Geez, I'm thinking unbiased news coverage is an oxymoron.