I've always thought al Jazeera was the most despicable media organization on Earth. They are objectively pro-terror, pro-tyranny, and pro-fascism. What I did not know, however, was that the frequent hostage videos aired by al Jazeera are then sold to Western media outlets for rebroadcast. If this is true, then the Western mainstream media is partially culpable for the plight of Western hostages in Iraq.
While many hostages are taken for purely financial reasons, others, including Jill Carroll, were taken for their propaganda value. Their terrorist captors find value in the fact that the Western media will replay her hostage videos over and over. Just like they did Giulana Sgrena's. This reinforces the notion that the terrorists are winning. And if people in the West believe the terrorists are winning, they will have less of a will to fight. Why fight a losing battle?
If true, shame on the Western media for paying the terrorists' media arm, al Jazeera, for a news story.
Having gotten their scoop, Al-Jazeera will then sell rights to the video to other networks, including American news channels. This generates income for the money-losing network and provides a measure of cover: If everyone else is airing them, why single them out?
Networks like hostage videos because they are newsworthy and form the basis for follow-on stories. There are relatives pleading for the release of their loved ones, generals asserting that we don't negotiate with terrorists, and pundits moaning that things must really be going badly. And at many networks, the "if it bleeds it leads" rule has a corollary: If it hurts Bush, give it a push.
The problem with these hostage videos is two-fold. First, they provide aid and comfort to our enemies in time of war. While a 30-second tape by a random terror groups may lack the propaganda punch of a rambling Osama tape, it will be followed by another almost exactly like it, and then another, dampening resolve and eroding morale.
Second, the publicity these tapes provide teaches aspiring terrorists that the price of admission for an airing of their grievances is not joining the political process, but simply grabbing a foreign hostage. This endangers every foreigner in Iraq, not just those seen as occupiers. [emphasis mine]
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As despicable as they are, Al Jazeera isn't the problem. The problem lies with the US networks (and those of other countries). Al Jazeera is unashamedly behind the terrorists, that's their position, so they show hostage videos and attack footage which glorify carnage. The US networks should feel obligated to counteract this by showing what terrorists are really like. They should be running interviews with former hostages and Iraqis who have survived attacks and can tell of the trauma and how their lives have been impacted by it. Not to mention the efforts being made by US and Iraqi forces to destroy these vermin. Get the truth out there. Instead we get repeats of Al Jazeera's sanitised videos and post-attack footage of blood in the streets and screaming women with nothing to put the whole thing in perspective, all because of political bias.
Posted by: Graeme at January 31, 2006 05:34 PM (75o7S)
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Graeme, as usual, you hit the nail on the head. It is infuriating to watch the Western Media try to somersault every time the Muslims say frog. We in the US are just about as dhimmified as they are in Europe, so we don't have much room to talk.
The Islamists will attack the blogs next. Apparently they have all but taken over the old media, even Fox is wary, and the only freedom we have left is on these blogs. So they will come here, and here is where the real fight will be.
Posted by: jesusland joe at January 31, 2006 06:33 PM (rUyw4)
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http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage
Maybe read the English version of Al Jazeera for a few weeks before you hop on the propaganda bandwagon of claiming their media bias. If Al Jazeera was "objectively pro-terror, pro-tyranny, and pro-fascism", they'd be championing the actions of the US... and looking just like "Fair and Balanced" FOX News.
Posted by: peter at January 31, 2006 07:28 PM (JIWzy)
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peter, you're living proof that some people post just to make themselves look dumb. You are a success! And why, pray, would anyone want to read al-Jezeera? The al-Guardian and NYT would suffice.
Posted by: jesusland joe at January 31, 2006 08:10 PM (rUyw4)
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"If everyone else is airing them, why single them out?"
That's the scariest part of the whole story, for me. They're using our media not only as a financial/political tool; but, they're also using our media as cover.
Kinda' like terrorists firing from behind women, I guess.
... and peter? What the fuck was that all about, man? Slowly ... step away ... from ... the bong.
I betcha' if you could read arabic, even you would be singing that tune a bit differently.
Shit. Even if you can't, and can't see the bias on the english site ... dude. Bong. Step away.
Posted by: Pete at January 31, 2006 11:37 PM (6DvwA)
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ALL NEO CONSERVATIVES CAN EAT SHIT AND DIE AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED. YOU ARE DESTROYING THIS COUNTRY AND BREED HATRED ALL THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. YOU ARE AS BAD AS THE ASSHOLE FUNDAMENTALISTS OF ISLAM. EVER WONDER HOW IT IS THAT FUNDAMENTALISTS (CHRISTIAN, JEWISH AND ISLAMIC) HAVE TAKEN OUR WORLD BY THE BALLS? IT'S YOU ANTI-INTELLECTUAL CRAPHEADS THAT OPEN THE DOORS TO FASCISM.
Posted by: joe at February 01, 2006 12:28 AM (mDBmH)
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"ALL NEO CONSERVATIVES CAN EAT SHIT AND DIE AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED..."
Praytell, Joe, what would you call that comment? Spreading the love?
"...YOU ANTI-INTELLECTUAL CRAPHEADS..."
Nice. And this is intellectual?
Posted by: Oyster at February 01, 2006 06:53 AM (YudAC)
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Graeme,
How rediculous, you sound,
It definately starts with Al Jeezera,
How you can defend a terrorist network, I do not know.
Susan
Posted by: Susan Freeman at February 01, 2006 07:38 AM (pvd/0)
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Well your all slating Al Jeezera, But who Armed Saddam Husain in the first place and made Billions,
Who is on the board of Directors of the Bin Laden Construction Company,
Who gave the Taliban Stinger Missiles, who caused this shit in the first place. American Imperialist gangsters Bush and Chenney but all done in the name of God Joe, and you do talk some crap, really you do
Posted by: Alan Bonhomme at February 01, 2006 11:10 AM (u1TtB)
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Bluto, it's news, and the news media should carry it, but Graeme is right that the news media should be carrying the other side of the story as well.
Giving the kidnap victim's side of the story would probably increase circulation for the show or paper that carried it. Interesting that they have not played up that angle, you'd almost think they put ideology before profit, eh?
Posted by: Phillep at February 01, 2006 01:41 PM (Xg00m)
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Did I say that Al Jazeera was NOT in any way biased? Its the rare media outlet, indeed, that doesn't have *some* form of spin on the "facts".
My problem is with the author's scertation that Al Jazeera is "the terrorists' media arm". That is a claim that truly deserves the "step away from the bong" assault (and oh, how very creative).
Pointless, really, to try to bring a fair assessment of Al Jazeera against the original diatribe - I should have known better than to try to moderate the overblown stereotype assigned to Al Jazeera when the majority of even our own television and print media is still seen here as "Fair and Balanced"...
Let hatred and narrow-mindedness rule...
You win.
Peter
Posted by: peter at February 01, 2006 02:57 PM (JIWzy)
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As far as I know, MSNBC is the only one with the latest tape of Jill Carroll. Al-Jazeera has not been selling it to everyone, and though perhaps MSNBC paid a lot, the fact that only one American news group has the video suggests that the author of this article is making this up.
Posted by: Bryan at February 02, 2006 09:34 PM (rmOJl)
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It's amazing how many people have an opinion on a topic in which they cannot claim "expertise" or to which they, seemingly, have all the accurate facts. By no means am I attributing the aforementioned qualities to myself, but I would like to ask why people get so angry and irrational over topics the world has been fighting over for years--religion and government? The Islamic world has been around since Babylon and, unfortunately, the U.S. is new, which doesn't attest to them being more right, but if we don't take a second to sit back and realize history is about to repeat itself, to realize our hatred, anger, and misunderstanding may, indeed, cause a third world war, we will, inevitably, destroy ourselves.
Posted by: Amanda at February 10, 2006 03:51 PM (S5vsQ)
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Al-Jazeera is just like every other news agency: they have their agenda, if you do not like it they are evil, if you do, they are saints.
I live in America. I am disappointed in America. Reading through these comments it is clear that education has failed in America. We (America) are not the rulers of the world. We do not have the ability to take care of our own: look at the health of our people, look at the lack of compassion for each other, look at the Katrina victims still struggling for some solid footing.
America was founded on liberty and justice for all - not liberty and justice for Americans. We, Americans, are in the most volatile time in our history due to our greed and self-absorption. ALL humans have a right to thrive and grow. The damage America has inflicted on other, deemed lesser, countries is horrific and we are not reaping the consequences of treating the rest of the world as our sandbox.
Other peoples do not resent us because they want to be like us, they resent us because we have been bastards and murderers to them.
Al-Jazeera is not the problem, we - the fat, spoiled and ignorant Americans are the problem and crying "we are under attack for no good reason" is juvenile and blind.
Wake up. It is time to start correcting the errors of our ways and be a true beacon, not dictator, to the world.
May all of you know peace. May the whole world know peace.
Posted by: America is Irrational at February 19, 2006 06:17 PM (dtoe0)
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