Al Jazeera - Unbiased?

Madmominct

[madmominct]

Just a general question - There seems to be a meme among lefties that Al Jazeera is an exceptionally "objective" news source. I haven't read Al Jazeera, but I wondered how the hell it has this reputation, even among the addled Left? I had an argument with my (college-aged) daughter over Christmas break about this. She insisted that it, along with the BBC, is very factual. I find this hard to believe, and suppose I should read it myself, but just wondered what you guys thought. I'm SURE there is no objectivity about Israel, for example.

[Uncle Miltie]

Al Jazeera is Qatar.

"Al Jazeera (Arabic: الجزيرة‎ al-ǧazīrah IPA: [æl dʒæˈziːrɐ], literally "The Island", abbreviating "The Arabian Peninsula"), also known as Aljazeera and JSC (Jazeera Satellite Channel), is a Doha-based broadcaster owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network, which is funded by the House of Thani, the ruling family of Qatar."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jazeera

[Uncle Miltie]

Qataris funded ISIS:

America’s Allies Are Funding ISIS

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), now threatening Baghdad, was funded for years by wealthy donors in Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, three U.S. allies that have dual agendas in the war on terror.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/14/america-s-allies-are-funding-isis.html

[Uncle Miltie]

So, I doubt there any chance Al Jazeera is “objective” on anything.

[thorvaldr]

Al Jazeera and BBC will seem less biased to Americans in comparison to our media which says exactly what the DNC wants and nothing else ever. But objectively no, BBC is very leftist and Al Jazeera is Quatar state run media.

[reagandemocrat]

AFAIK Al Jazeera refused to call the Charlie Hebdo assassins “Islamic terrorists”. So there’s that.

[madmominct]

Thank you. Just what I thought.

[madmominct]

There ya go.

[SpinnerWebb]

So... yes. Completely unbiased. If by “unbiased”, you mean wholeheartedly supporting your leftist agenda with slanted propaganda.

Indeed, unbiased.

[Star Traveler]

It depends on what articles. Some of them are good and then others have a slant. The key with any news organization is to just be aware of the slant. You can get additional details on some events, that aren’t available from other news organizations.

[Drango]

About the same as NPR is unbiased, which isn’t saying much.

[mad puppy]

I made a point of watching their TV news for a while and honestly, thought SOME of it was pretty good. So long as the topics were completely benign, I got the idea it was ok.

That said, if the topic was anything remotely related to Israel or Islam...please.

[Star Traveler]

Here’s an example of a fairly factual report, just reporting what the opposing sides are saying, and it’s clear who is saying what. There are details in here that you may not get elsewhere.

Palestine faces backlash over ICC move
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2015/01/palestine-faces-backlash-over-icc-move-201511912371278649.html

[Personal Responsibility]

When the left says “unbiased” what they mean is “untainted by the slightest bit of patriotism, American exceptionalism or western values”

[Kipp]

leaked al jazeera newsroom emails about the spin AJ reporters and commentators were supposed to put on the Charlie Hebdo murders. Not exactly something an objective news source would do.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3245370/posts

[9thLife]

I noticed something scroll by when I was channel surfing recently. It was something called, "The Day Israel Attacked America." I said, "whaaaaaaaaat?!" and did a double take and lo and behold, it was algorejezeera (pay per view, thank you).

I tell you, I really was shocked for a million different reasons. And it was all I ever needed to know about algorejezeera.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Flipping through cable I stumbled onto Al Jazeera America (I didn’t even know it was carried here) ... anyway, I’ve watched it a few times.

The news (not the fluff stories) is reported like it used to be reported here ... just the news. I was very surprised to find myself admitting that the reporting of the news itself was pretty darn straightforward and fair.

It’s an interesting international news source. I haven’t watched any of their roundtable chitchats so I can’t comment on those.

[x]

There is no unbiased news. There's news that doesn't have the biases that people object to. In someone else's eyes, though, a site that's balanced between Republicans and Democrats, say, could be clearly biased against other, non-Mainstream views. A site that gives non-Mainstream views of the right or left a fair hearing would likely be seen as biased by those on the other side of the political spectrum.

I'm looking at al Jazeera's webpage and the headlines don't look more biased than what you'd see at NPR or one of the alphabet networks. I do notice that the most discussed stories relate to Muslim issues and an article about beards in Philadelphia turns out to be about the history of Islam in the Philadelphia music scene, so I guess that could be seen as a bias.

[Star Traveler]

There are a lot of US Military people who are really mad about this, because they think it was intentional, by Israel. It’s something that did happen and many are angry about it, to this day. As for myself, I think there is room for mistakes having been made at a time of war.

Here’s the article ...

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2014/10/day-israel-attacked-america-20141028144946266462.html

[GeronL]

lol

they are very very biased