Sunday 5 November 2006

Viewpoint Extra: AL-Jazeera International - Do Conservatives want to see it?

Couple of things to add to my previous post about Conservatives and AJI.

First, the exceedingly right wing Accuracy In Media has two columns about the channel. Matthew Hickman's "Briefing" column uses all the traditional Republican/Conservative talking points about the channel, and Cliff Kincaid's Media Monitor column draws comparisons between the wars in Vietnam and Iraq and accuses Al-Jazeera of being a propoganda network.

On the other side of the coin, ForeignPolicy.com provides a more insightful analysis into the channel. Interestingly, it says that AJI is biased, but no more so than Fox News than CNN.

All news services have at least a small degree of bias, mainly in the choice of stories to cover and the angles those stories cover. However, Fox News Channel seems to have a greater degree of bias than most. They seem to have a complete editorial stance on everything. I have noticed in recent weeks that some so-called scandals featuring Democrats, which were low-priority stories really, got almost wall-to-wall coverage on FNC, whilst similar low-level so-called scandals concerning Republicans, were ignored. Now does that sound "Fair" and "Balanced" to you?

I personally am looking forward to the launch of AJI. Unlike the Republicans/Conservatives, I will not judge the channel, until I see its content.

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