Salon: Al Jazeera English's Egypt coverage embarrasses U.S. cable news channels

[Turborama]

There is a curfew in effect in Egypt, but thousands of protesters remain in the streets in Cairo, Suez, Alexandria, and across the rest of the country. President Hosni Mubarek is expected to speak soon. Police might've fired teargas at praying demonstrators. And Fox reported on how ICE arrested some immigrant sex offenders in Virginia.

Fox, CNN, and MSNBC are all acquitting themselves better than they did the day Tunisia's government collapsed. All of them have reporters in Cairo, and are airing footage of the demonstrations on the streets. But none of them are reporting on the situation as compellingly as Al Jazeera English, which has reporters across the country. And if you're in the United States, http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/">you can probably only see Al Jazeera English online. If you're watching Al Jazeera, you're seeing uninterrupted live video of the demonstrations, along with reporting from people actually on the scene, and not "analysis" from people in a studio. The cops were threatening to knock down the door of one of their reporters minutes ago. Fox has moved on to anchor babies. CNN reports that the ruling party building is on fire, but Al Jazeera is showing the fire live.

CNN, to their credit, is using coverage from the grownups at CNN International. MSNBC had Dan Senor (council on foreign relations) reporting from Davos. Yes, liberal MSNBC was getting live analysis from a neoconservative former spokesperson for the occupying US government in Iraq. Fox just had former UN Ambassador and ultra-hawk John Bolton on to warn us about the Muslim Brotherhood. Al Jazeera had an opposition party leader on the phone.



From: http://www.salon.com/news/media_criticism/?story=/politics/war_room/2011/01/28/cable_news_egypt

Edited to rub salt into US cable's wound and add this link to AJE's excellent live blog: http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/01/28/liveblog-egypts-protests-erupt

I also just felt the overwhelming urge to post this again: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=6848728">Bushco Bombed 2 Foreign Offices of an Ally's TV News Channel & Planned to Bomb its Head Office!

[xchrom]

1. indeed -- i am LOVING al jazeera. nt

[justiceischeap]

2. Al Jazeera has been embarrassing US Cable News for years (eom)

[Xenotime]

37. Exactly. They are a true progressive news source.

[sufrommich]

3. Al Jazeera's coverage is absolutely amazing. nt

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

4. I'm watching right now. It was funny to watch the State Dept. flunkie defend the regime while at the

time claiming that he's not defending it.

[blondeatlast]

5. Absolutely. this is how it was done once upon (my) lifetime. nt

[ChairmanAgnostic]

7. when men were men, women were women, & the media

were investigative journalists traveling to scary parts of the world to get the real story back to us.

[Broderick]

6. Watching Aljazeera

and they are saying there is a possibility that the museum of antiquity may be in danger of fire.... that would be a horrific loss of history.

[csziggy]

8. As much as I love the study of history and archeology, that loss

Would be welcome if it brought about an improvement in the lives of the living. Far too long Egypt has been used as a repository for the past while nothing was done to help real people have a better quality of life.

I would mourn the loss of information if the museum burned but real live people are so much more important than dead ones.

[Broderick]

10. No disagreement there

But I would hate to lose that history, and I don't think it mutually exclusive.

[hlthe2b]

13. I think it very unlikely Egyptians would destroy their historical treasures

Very unlikely. And, yes, I do know history with regard to the original spread of Islam and the largely unsuccessful attempts to obliterate the symbols of ancient Egypt and Coptic Christianity.

[Odin2005]

44. Yup. Only in Egypt is the head archeologist is considered a celebrity.

:-)

[hlthe2b]

14. Their history and antiquities are their "Oil"

It would be devastating to the economic prospects and only further decimate the hopes for average Egyptians to gain a better quality of life.

[hlthe2b]

33. Protesters have formed a human shield to protect the Antiquities Museum from being looted.

A tweet from the Toronto Star.. http://livenews.thestar.com/Event/Protests_in_Egypt

[Broderick]

35. Saw that here too

on this tweeting thing someone posted. Updates automatically.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/01/201112523026521335.html


That is great news.

[hlthe2b]

9. It is ludicrous that Al Jazeera has been so maligned by the US

It is overwhelmingly staffed with former BBC reporters and cameramen, who have worked in the region for decades.

American "Exeptionalism," indeed.

[Turborama]

15. The NYT have written a disgusting hit piece

Here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/world/middleeast/28jazeera.html?_r=1

This is my long counter argument to any of that BS: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=6848728

I'm now boycotting NYT and will never use them as a source again.

[hlthe2b]

16. They are getting an earful from their comments coming back too

NYTimes could not be more disingenuous and lacking in self reflection. Incredible.

[Turborama]

17. Indeed they are, thank you so much for bringing that to my attention!

I was fuming with rage about it until I read the responses. They acted as a good anecdote.

http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/world/middleeast/28jazeera.html

[molly77]

40. Read NY Times and then the Guardian

No comparison. Fascism is definitely boring. Fox News with all the lovely young ladies is still boring.

[Turborama]

42. You've got that right!

I used to like the NYT, has it changed or is it just that I've been looking more closely?

[tigereye]

36. I didn't know that, I'm afraid I thought of it in a more

negative way. I was pleasantly surprised to see how comprehensive the coverage was.

[deutsey]

11. Excellent coverage

I've been listening to AJ in the mornings on www.kpfa.org and have been very impressed.

Today's coverage is amazing.

[Uncle Joe]

12. Kicked and recommended for real journalism.

Thanks for the thread, Turborama.

[sad sally]

18. Richard Engle, reporting for MSNBC, said

protesters were holding up empty tear gas cannisters showing the "made in USA" logo. Here are the exports our government espouses we make - bombs, war machines, tear gas, drones. Great, huh?

[malaise]

19. So what's new

BBC is also embarrassing the US networks but that's normal.
BBC has live coverage although I'm sick of seeing the war criminal Tony Blair.

[EFerrari]

23. Through the night, only AJ (regular, not English) had live images.

And me with not a word of Arabic. lol

[Turborama]

25. Al Jazeera English has had live coverage

Since this began.

Unless I read what you meant incorrectly?

[EFerrari]

26. They lost their feed for a while -- somewhere between 2-4 am PST.

(By then, I couldn't read the clock any more. lol)

[Turborama]

27. LOL, have you had any sleep yet?

It's that time of the morning here now and the way this story keeps moving it looks like I'm probably going to sleep well after the roosters wake up.

[EFerrari]

30. A few hours. Should get a little more

because nothing seems to be working. lol :hi:

[Turborama]

45. I've just had 4

Was up until 5am and woke up at 9am. A pint of coffee when I woke up helped. Paraphrasing what another poster said somewhere else, it's been (and still is) a fascinating episode of insomnia. :hi:

[EFerrari]

20. That's why Rumsfeld demonized them and even bombed them twice. n/t

[Better Believe It]

21. K & R

[Joanne98]

22. But but Charlie Sheen is in the hospital.

REVOLUTION

OVERTHROW THE MEDIA!

[Broderick]

28. Facepalm

So much going on and that is news..... sigh.

[EFerrari]

32. Support the independent (the only good) media!

They all need your 5 bucks to keep working!

[sabrina 1]

24. Al Jazeera constantly embarrasses our media.

Americans are so ignorant of what is really going on in the world because of the MSM. But elsewhere people are becoming far more informed and cannot be fooled by the lies of their governments when they actually have a real news media reporting real news.

Good article. They should be embarrassed. The world is moving on, winds of change everywhere, and unless we get some real news reporting, the U.S. will be left behind.

Thanks Rudolph Murdoch for helping to destroy the free press in the U.S.

I read on Twitter yesterday as history was being made in the world, that the MSM here was reporting on the Kardashians!

[SidDithers]

29. Well, it is right in their backyard...

so we should expect their coverage to outshine US cable networks.

How well did Al Jazeera cover the Gabby Giffords shooting?

Sid

[EFerrari]

31. They did great, as a matter of fact.

If you search Al Jazeera Giffords, a bunch of stories.

We don't really have news outlets here any more. It's sort of sad.

[tigereye]

34. that was so good- but they did switch to the London

news feeds finally- loved when the folks were talking about what was going on right outside their newsroom.

[madrchsod]

38. if you want to find out what`s happening in the usa....

you have to look for overseas, south, or north of the border news broadcasts.

[katty]

39. that's is true--look to other countries for your news

[Ignis]

41. You could've removed the word "Egypt" from the title without a difference.

Our "Fourth Estate" gave up news in favor of entertainment quite a while back.

[Odin2005]

43. The silence is intentional. Duh.

[Turborama]

46. Kick for those who may have missed it

And for those who are trying to spread disinformation about AJ English.

[Dover]

47. I don't think most Americans realize how censored the news is here unless they travel abroad

and are exposed to the coverage of other foreign news agencies. Not just Al Jazeera.

I was in Europe when the first Gulf War broke out and the coverage was outstanding
and covered every angle, the history leading up to it, all the players and their interests
and so on. I got an education not only about that event, but how censored our own coverage
was.
When I returned home I couldn't find ANY real information and became so frustrated. All they
were showing on t.v. was the clips of the "surgical strikes" ad naseum and discussing all the nifty new high tech weaponry we were employing.
Disgusting. And Bushco will go down as being the most manipulative and aggressively anti-news administration in history who were literally targeting the press corp. And now all the major news agencies here have been bought out.

[Change Happens]

48. It was truly amazing! I watched almost all day yesterday, they did an excellent job!

I am glad someone is talking about it...I was very impressed!

[Turborama]

49. It's still going on. The crowds are even bigger. MUCH bigger.

For your convenience: http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/ ;-)