system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why are Al Jazeera and the likes of BBC held in such high regards?

Surely these news sources have a lot of bias also? 

What gives them the impression of reliability and neutrality?

Why do they seem capable of pumping out high quality material consistently better than their competition? Especially since there is so much competition.

I can't help but feel like I see a *lot* of high quality documentaries from the BBC, and Al Jazeera seems to be unbiased, as far as American news channels go.

Has it got something to do with funding or are my opinions just wrong?
gpt
Part of it is the financing.

The BBC is financed by television license fees and while in theory accountable to the British government they enjoy a great deal of freedom.

Other media may have to please their owners and their advertisers, but state run media at least do not have to content as much with the idea of not angering their advertisers and depending on the country may not see as much as influence from the governments that finance them.

Al Jazeera is based in Qatar and partly funded by the Emir and his family. They don't have as much freedom criticizing their own government, but they have reasonable freedom abroad and especially in cases where Qatar doesn't have a dog in the fight so to speak.

Another thing that both have in common that they are not as profit driven as private media. There is no need to search after the lowest common denominator or punch up the sensationalism to gain viewers, because of their other sources of funding.