America's leaders seem to have a love-hate relationship with the Middle Eastern TV network Al-Jazeera -- one week they're denouncing it as an agent of Islamic extremism, and seemingly the next week they're giving it interviews trying to woo "the Arab Street." But as the network -- which includes a fully English-language outfit called Al-Jazeera English, or AJE -- has shown for the last year, there's no better source for comprehensive coverage of one of the most important stories in the world today -- the so-called "Arab Spring." And Al-Jazeera English somehow manages to cover events in the region without cutting away every five minutes to remind us that Whitney Houston is still dead.
This week, Al Jazeera English won one of America's top two journalism prizes, a George Polk Award, for its fearless coverage of one aspect of the uprising. Here's the citation, and a link to the broadcast:
The George Polk Award for Television Documentary will recognize the courageous work of Al Jazeera English reporter May Ying Welsh and field producer Hassan Mahfoodin developing "Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark." When Bahrain banned foreign journalists during the Arab Spring protests, Welsh remained, working undercover with Mahfood to produce a film that gives a voice to the protesters for democratic rights and presents a harrowing, on-the-ground view of their brutal suppression. The documentary highlights the unbridled power of security forces in a key American ally on the Gulf.
It's good that you can see this award-winning journalism online -- because you can't see on your cable TV in Philadelphia or in most other major American cities, since Al-Jazeera English has been all but blacklisted in this country. Some groups -- including the Occupy Philadelphia crew here -- have been on the warpath about this, but Comcast doesn't seem to listen:
On Monday, Philadelphia police and Comcast security guards barred demonstrators from entering the building as a group. Rethink leaders Xi Wang and Mike Haack were admitted briefly under escort. They brought the signatures, printed on 1,000 pages and tied with a ribbon, to the mail room for delivery to Comcast officials.
"While we are not currently in discussions, we have met with representatives of Al-Jazeera in the past," Comcast said in a prepared statement. "We regularly examine our channel lineups and talk with a wide range of programmers to ensure that we are bringing the content that our customers want the most."
The signatures had been collected online through Change.org, a website that promotes social change through Internet petitions.
Believe it or not, I had been willing to cut Comcast some slack on this -- it's not like there's an unlimited number of channels...OK, so there's like 999, and a bunch of them are empty. But still. Then, today, a day after Al-Jazeera's Polk award, I read this:
Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and Earvin "Magic" Johnson will be hosts and owners of new cable channels which Comcast (and maybe others) will launch later this year and early next.
Two new channels geared to the Hispanic audience - one with direction by the legendary Hollywood film director Robert Rodriguez - are also in the Comcast pipeline.
P.Diddy's music-themed service Revolt aims to give the likes of BET and MTV a run for the money, combining urban-slanted artists and news with a social networking component. "We're coming with a new energy, we're coming with something that people are going to want to tune in to see," shared the media mogul with an MTV reporter recently. Though best known for his rap hits, P. Diddy's Bad Boy Entertainment has also produced hit cable shows like "Making the Band." Revolt will launch in 2013.
Not that there's anything wrong with all that. But Comcast's stated commitment to diversity is still a joke, if it's adding so much new programming yet still afraid to offer American viewers the original journalism and different perspective offered by Al-Jazeera English. To make room for P. Diddy's Revolt while continuing to censor the revolt against dictatorial rule in Bahrain is an insult to your intelligence, and an insult to the people of the Philadelphia area.
Fair, Balance, Unbiased? Al Jazeera English is the best MSM news station. Its better than CNN, Fox and their network, MSNBC.— flyersfan89- I'm all for diversity of thought, why can't the Pinky Inky do the same?— Tom813
- How much more traffic does Dan Gross get over Trudy Rubin?— sadim
- Ok, so you're all for Al-Jezeera because they stand up for those who speak out against their government, but you don't like it when places like Fox speak out against your boy Barry. Classic.— savetherepublic
- Fox news is where all the kids who were taunted long ago with “liar liar pants on fire” by the other kids
ended up being employed.
They all belong to the SSRU.
Sickly Sycophants R Us.
Membership is by nomination only, and self improvement is not possible.— Redwoodser - "diversity" is anti-value--and the new racism.
Advocates of "diversity" claim it will teach students to tolerate and celebrate their differences. But the "differences" they have in mind are racial differences, which means we're being urged to glorify race, which means we're being asked to institutionalize separatism.— John_Galt - .
.
.
.
Ayn Rand was a fascist ,
and Galt her alter ego.
Thanks for sharing.— Redwoodser - You should get an education, Redwooster. My guess is you have never researched 'fascism' (which was invented by Benito Mussolini). I have an idea. Let's get the definition of Fascism from Mussolini himself!
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini
The structure of fascism is corporatism, or the corporate state. The structure of fascism is the union, marriage, merger or fusion of corporate economic power with governmental power. In essence, it is what Obama is doing now!
In contrast, Ayn Rand was a 100% free market thinker and completely rejected the unholy alliance between corporations and the government.
Nice try though. Lesser educated people might be influenced by people like you.
Thanks for showing your stupidity!— Jimmyjammsjames - Nearly forty years ago, in 1962, Ayn Rand delivered a speech at the Ford Hall Forum entitled, "The Fascist New Frontier." Her speech harshly criticized the administration of John F. Kennedy for its violation of rights.
She intended to include a copy of this speech in her second nonfiction collection, but Random House Books editor, Bennett Cerf, would have none of it. Rand claimed that Cerf initially touted the idea, even endorsing the notion of titling the collection after the talk.
While the speech was printed in pamphlet form, it did not receive publication in a Rand book collection until the second edition of The Ayn Rand Column, published in 1998 by Second Renaissance Books.
Rand began her speech by quoting from a work endorsed by that noted collectivist and mystic, Adolf Hitler. In 1920, der Fuhrer laid out his program for achieving social justice
http://home.earthlink.net/~rdmadden/webdocs/American_Fascism_Revisited.html
— Redwoodser - this is for— Jimmyjammsjames
Thanks for showing your stupidity!
Put that on your gravestone jimmy sham
and thanks for sharing......lol— Redwoodser - "Like Hitler, Rand finds in nature, in man's struggle for survival, a "logical foundation" for capitalism.
Far from privileging the collective over the individual or subsuming the latter under the former, Hitler believed that it was the "strength and power of individual personality" that determined the economic (and cultural) fate of the race and nation.
Here he is in 1933 addressing another group of industrialists:
Everything positive, good and valuable that has been achieved in the world in the field of economics or culture is solely attributable to the importance of personality.... All the worldly goods we possess we owe to the struggle of the select few.
And here is Rand in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1967):
The exceptional men, the innovators, the intellectual giants....It is the members of this exceptional minority who lift the whole of a free society to the level of their own achievements, while rising further and ever further."
Garbage and Gravitas
Corey Robin
May 20, 2010
— Redwoodser - Savetherepublic: Al Jazeera English provides balanced news coverage. Fox is not news, which is why we call it Faux. They are party hacks and mostly morons and mouthpieces for the right wing vigilantes like you— intelliwoman
- And you would know this why? Because you watch? Or did you learn this from Rick Maddow, or the now famous, (and exposed for the fraud that it is), tax exempt Media Matters? — Jimmyjammsjames
- -dumbwoman, and MSNBS is what??? Sgt. (I know nothing, NOTHING!!) Schultz, Mr. Radical Mancow, Groucho Olbermann, Larry O'dumbell, Chris Madthews, etc. are all party hacks, morons, ignorers of the truth, left wing vigilantes. As libby as you probably are I don't think even you could out do these treasonists and liars who would rather ignor the truth to save the person they support then see the country actually get better!!!— sarah89
- I've never called for FNC and in fact I've defended the right of them and any other conservative channels (paging Ed Snider...) to exist. But I think there's also a free speech obligation to correct any false information broadcast to the American people, and unfortunately Fox has done a lot of that.— will
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
E-mail Will by clicking here.
PLEASE COMMENT WITH PASSION...
...but not with racial slurs, potentially libelous allegations, obscenities or other juvenile noise. Such comments will, at our discretion, be deleted in their entirety, and repeat offenders will be blocked from commenting. ALSO: Any commenter advocating killing any government official will be immediately banned.
Thanks.
- Atrios
- Kiko's House
- Suburban Guerilla
- Booman Tribune
- All-Spin Zone
- Philly (Dragonballyee)
- Afro-Netizen
- Rowhouse Logic
- MyDD
- Bad Attitudes
- Billmon
- iFlipFlop
- CorrenteWire
- upyernoz
- Tattered Coat
- Fables of the Reconstruction
- Slacktivist
- Citizen Mom
- The Next Mayor
- Philly Future
- Philadelphia Will Do
- Philebrity
- Young Philly Politics
- Phillyblog
- Welcome to Phillyville
- Phawker
- A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago
- Keystone Blog
- Philadelphia - America's Hometown
- BlankBaby
- Above Average Jane
- Phillyist
- Metroblogging Philadelphia
- The Clog
- Josh Marshall
- Daily Kos
- Juan Cole
- Oliver Willis
- Andy Borowitz
- War and Piece
- Wonkette
- BuzzFlash
- Raw Story
- Cursor
- Crooks and Liars
- Swing State Project
- Kevin Drum
- Talk Left
- AmericaBlog
- Hullabaloo
- Mad Kane
- Think Progress
- Jesus' General
- The Carpetbagger Report
- Majikthise
- Echidne of the Snakes
- David Sirota
- Glenn Greenwald
- TBogg
- Fire Dog Lake
- Taylor Marsh
- Matthew Yglesias
- Jon Swift
- Drudge Report
- Beer Leaguer
- The 700 Level
- Dick Polman
- Balls, Sticks and Stuff
- Shallow Center
- Philling Station
- Phillies Nation
- A Citizen's Blog
- The Good Phight
- Romenesko
- Editor and Publisher
- Pressthink
- Buzzmachine
- The Inksniffer
- Media Bloodhound
- Eat the Press
- Mickey Kaus
- Media (Huffington Post)
- Blinq
- The Corner
- Instapundit
- Andrew Sullivan
- Free Republic
- James Taranto
- Blonde Sagacity
- ScrappleFace
- Blogorrhea
- May
- April
- March
- February
- January
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- January 2008
- News | Sports | Business | What's Happening | Restaurants & Food | Entertainment | Living | Marketplace | Jobs
