Fair and balanced
According to a piece in Monday’s Süddeutsche Zeitung, the English-language service of Al Jazeera aims “to offer a counterweight to the worldview of the Anglo-Saxon programs.” Whatever this may mean, they seem to be succeeding. I turned on twice last Thursday (or was it Friday?), the first time to find Riz Khan interviewing Harold Pinter at great length about what a great place the Middle East was before the Yankees screwed it all up a few years ago, and the second time to find two guys described as “bloggers from mediachannel.org” talking about how censorship in the U.S. makes it impossible for anyone interested in world affairs to gain an accurate picture. One of the guys actually compared President Bush to Joseph Stalin. The video you’ll find at the top of their website, by the way, is a commercial (presumably a freebie?) for Al Jazeera that includes the memorable slogan, “watch out CNN, watch out Fox News, watch out BBC, watch out world — because this week, Al Jazeera International is going live on television and in English.” (The dude is identified as “Danny Schecter” in the video caption and as “Danny Schechter” just opposite the page. Either way, no idea who he is.)
I have a feeling I might pass this one up for the time being.
