Dear M,

I the big questions are: which guests do they get for talkshows? What issues to they push & which ones do they skirt? And is the coverage of events & the nomenclature different between Arabic & English Al-Jazeera?

Meaning, on Al-Jazeera English the Israelis make "incursions" into Gaza -- do they, in the same story on Al-Jazeera Arabic, "commit aggressions"?

I found the "new AND improved" website of Al-Jazeera English a cheap copy of the BBC World News one.

So let's see where AJE is in 6 months from now.

--Matthias

www.niqash.org

I watch an hour or so of AJE and thought it was a poor man's BBC too. The Guardian was not impressed and said the channel didn't focus enough on the Western world to draw English-speaking viewers: http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1948869,00.html

Emotive language and entrenched biases - isn't that what sells in TV news anywhere? I dunno, I just figure you have to take some biases with any channel because it's going to have to cater to its audience. You'll never hear an American channel use the active voice when discussing Israelis killing Palestinians, it's always "clashes" or "raids in response to terrorist attacks." I don't think anyone believes that's going to change, and Jazeera Arabic will use "resistance" and "aggression" till kingdom come as well.

For your readers who missed it, here were the opening scenes :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijsNmMZt9fc

Dear all,

Lawrence Pintak, director of the Adham Center for Electronic Journalism at AUC and Senior Editor of the TBS (Transnational Broadcasting Studies) Journal, wrote an interesting article about AJE's first day on the air.

His starting paragraph reads thus:

On its first day of broadcasting, Al-Jazeera International provided a fast-paced, first-rate lens to the Middle East and Africa. It also proved that it was indeed different from the BBC and CNN -- by ignoring some of the world's most-important news events.

The full article can be accessed here:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,448830,00.html

--Matthias

www.niqash.org

Pintak's article has at least one mistake - AJE didn't ignore the tsunami in Japan, they had live updates as the thing was coming in.

This should convince the doubters who think AJE is the voice of the international jihad (and endear them to Aqoul readers):

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23374441-details/Britons%20at%20Al-Jazeera%20TV%20station%20rapped%20for%20'drinking%20binges'/article.do

Off topic, but: Pierre Gemayel (ibn Amin, minister of something-or-other shot dead in the street. One of the cheery people in the office pointed out that if two more (or maybe 3 - I'm not clear on whether it was 3 total or 3 more) are killed (after the six resignations a week or so ago), the government will automatically fall because they won't have a quorum in the cabinet.

The situation is developing not necessarily to Lebanon's advantage.

Of marginal interest: Lebanese Minister of Industry dead (The al jazeera link means it's on topic. Also, if this one gets eaten by the spam filter I'm giving up.)

You should drop those links in the sidebar.

finally someone else mentions all the things that annoy me about al jazeera arabic!

i am so sick of those commercials where they have some idiot or big name talking about how important al jazeera is. part of me reminds me of how i imagine a dictator or king would promote himself- just have pictures of himself with babies and important men everywhere. or the music and the graphics from a hollywood movie announcing the important al jay presence.

i started to listen to bbc arabic, and it is such better quality than al j. just this growing weariness with al j makes me less interested in al j english. it is an interesting endeavor and a nice addition for english speaking audiences, but al j itself is just another brand name promoting itself, just a different brand.

and i mourn the fact that there is no bbc arabic tv channel. they are great.