Al Jazeera

More powerful than ever

The most-watched television channel in the Arab world still stirs controversy

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Readers' comments



Al-Jazeera has managed to reach the complicated outcome of being both mainstream and alternative, providing a level of news quality not unlike any of the main international corporative outlets, yet offering a welcome different approach, much more critical of the established powers and focusing on controversial issues, often ignored by Western media. I personally follow their website rather than their TV channels, but their analysis are always thought-provoking and dig into the dark corners of our West-dominated world. I hope there will be more to imitate their model.

Juris_LV is the best news source for ME affairs. Many times I read very important news about ME some hours earlier than in Western media and they have many reporters all around the place. On, msnbc, foxnews You mostly get celebrity news adn crappy international news which often are shown hours later. I am not muslim and I live in Latvia and I think aljazeera has BIAS but as much as mainstream western media.

P.S. Saudi Arabia is the last place for press freedom so this so called "bias" against Saudi Arabia don't count :)


you can follow the Spanish/Latin American news at


Certain relevant facts are "ignored" in the "western" agencies, as said; to many other facts, one gets "versions" of them. To be fair, one needs a second "opinion". Al Jazeera is this source...


I do not totally agree with the writer specially on some aspects mentioned regarding Al-Jazeera arabic channel. I constantly watch the channel and I think it is rather objective. However, I agree that some of its guests can be controversial. Nonetheless, I view this as a positive aspect, as it allows every one to have a voice. I really appreciate the work of Al-Jazeera Arabic specifically its coverage on issues inside several Arabic countries that are highly censored by the involved state regime and do not usually appear on western states for political reasons as well.

ibn thabit

How ridiculous it is to suggest bias due to the mere presence of Palestinians on Al Jazeera's staff. Money doesn't buy viewers, and there's a reason why Al Jazeera is gobbling up the minds of the concerned.

And speaking of ethnic/political bias, why can't the same be said about a different ethnicity somewhere else without getting shtick? Why doesn't CNN get some attention for being obviously biased towards Israel--and the links are a lot more obvious than some vague connections cited in the article above. Wolf Blitzer was once a lobbyist for AIPAC, while a whole bunch of other notables are Jewish--Larry King, Dana Bash, her husband John King (who converted to Judaism), and Campbell Brown (who also converted to Judaism)--all of whom we get to see during prime-time on a nightly basis. And what was the biggest missed event in 2009? A complete blackout on the Gaza offensive.


One of the major reason of achieving the current position, they call spade ans spade with any spicing up or spinning. They have earned the credibility as a true reporter of events happening all over.


Yes, I will sign up for al-jazeera when they start covering the Qatar General Elections and broadcast the opening of the Grand Ahura Mazda Temple in Doha....until then its just a hypocrisy just like any other media, east or west.


Whether pro or con, Aljazeera has changed the global media game for ever.
Anglo-Saxon media, dominated by the interest of the LOBBY has become a farce, adding to the near unanimous displeasure and critique of its news and information.
Aljazeera has been able to bypass the LOBBY for now and put an Arab as well as 3rd world voice on the main stream agenda.
Knowing that Qatar is has no transparent political and social system and institution and its ruler’s close alliance to the United States and indirectly to Israel, I wonder how long this relative independence might continue.
It could also be a farce by itself if you believe the diversion tactics used by the media and the LOBBY to implant ideas sympathetic to its cause and interest into the collective mind and main stream, in order to create the resemblance of multi-polarity and freedom.
Nevertheless it has given rise to others to put forward similar ideas.


Al Jazeera English is quite good. I wouldn't make it my soul source of news, but it has no more bias than most news services. In most cases, I think it is distinctly more honest than many western media outlets.

I always have a hard time taking the complaints of the Saudi and Egyptian governments seriously. Both are beneath contempt, and I would doubt the sanity of any news source that views them positively.

suma sin laude

The typical commercial medium is an advertising business first, an entertainment outlet second and a relevant information service last. No media owner or commercial journalist is going to antagonize the people that finances his livelihood. Since most media in the west are commercial, this glaring conflict of interest has never been acknowledged, much less dealt with. The result: rather poorly informed citizenry (remember the WMD in Iraq?).

All that the alternative media like Al-Jazeera, TeleSur and The Real News need to do to earn the trust of viewers is uphold the basic journalistic standards that most commercial media lack.

El Toro Es Guapo

Its good to have an alternative perspective to the world.
US news stations have become to commercial and to conservative (sometimes radically right wing). They cater to the interests of their target audience, which is why a diaper wearing former astronaut love triangle dominated the national news for 2 weeks solid!
That's what they care about, don't bother them with the poor and the wretched in the 3rd world.


The LOBBY does all it can to suppress free speech in the US, pressuring cable and satellite companies not to carry Al Jazeera, among many other tactics.
They sink so low that they recently pushed Comedy Central website to remove a funny game from the website just because they thought it was "offensive" to the LOBBY members. No coverage of that in the media, of course.


I have always liked the BBC, French 24 is decent, having an arab point of view to news is cool, maybe in the future there will be a big Chinese news chanel that will give their point of view to world news. Is there a spanish news channel that gives Latin American/Spain point of view on the news?


Al-Jazeera english is the best news channel in the world. Unfortunately here in Hungary still no cable network is willing to put it in his package.


As an American who watches al Jazeera/English, I appreciate its coverage of stories completely ignored by the US mainstream media. In particular, it covers stories illustrating the suffering of Palestinians under illegal Israeli occupation. In my view, al Jazeera is vastly superior to CNN, ABC, NBC, and is at least on par with BBC News for its overall objectivity of its coverage. Too bad more Americans don't have a chance to watch this alternative news source.


I watch the English channel of Al-Jazeera. I am pleasantly suprised by the wide range of issues covered with the aim of being objective. They are an example to many english language channels, who seem to think that they cannot be anything but objective, and indeed think that no body else is capable of objectivity.
I used to watch an interview programme on the BBC, where some interviwers genuinely believed they were being thoroughly objective, but the nature of their questions revealed that they were stuck in the british establishment paradigm. Indeed the BBC has become less objective over the years.
Satellite television today provides about 13 free channels from a variety of diverse cultures. Some of whom have obvious biases. Hence the viewer is able see differnt points of view. Al-Jaazera English makes an effort to be objective and balanced. Many of their presenters seem to be people from more traditional channels who may have felt restricted by their previous employers.


Western media, particularly the American kind, have long deluded themselves in thinking that they strive for and achieve objectivity which is a nonsense, particularly in America where the level of ignorance of realities around the world, and even at home, is shocking. Human beings, journalists included, are by their exposures, frames of reference and crucially limited access to people and events, biased at least to some extent despite their claims otherwise. Al Jazeera, both Arabic and English, have done the world a huge service by bringing a fresh new view of world events, which (no surprise) is why they are so successful.


I believe the writer is incorrect in saying that Al Jazeera refers to suicide bombers as shuhadaa' (singular shaheed), at least not for several years. I suspect the writer is picking up without checking a criticism of Al Jazeera made by its enemies, mainly in Israel and the United States. Personally, and I frequently watch Al Jazeera in Arabic, I have never heard the word used by the staff, though of course some politicians and guests might sometimes use the word, as they might on any television station.


I live in the United States and watch Al Jazeera English on Link TV, as well as on the internet. At a time when the journalistist standards of the corporate US media are becoming increasingly laughable, it provides a source of information and news that are second to none, especially for those interested in world affairs.



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