At a time when some of the most consequential news stories are emanating from the Middle East, America’s cable companies are almost uniformly refusing to carry Al-Jazeera English, the news channel best equipped to cover events on the ground in their native territories.<\/p>\n
Al-Jazeera has received high marks from a broad spectrum of analysts for their coverage of the uprising in Egypt. And with similar protests emerging in places like Algeria, Yemen, and Iran, they have insured that these important stories are being told throughout the world. American news organizations often pick up the Al-Jazeera feed for re-broadcast. This includes Fox News<\/a>, whose pundits have harshly criticized Al-Jazeera even while their editors have incorporated the Al-Jazeera feeds into their programming.<\/p>\n Yesterday the Boston Globe published an op-ed by Juliette Kayyem<\/a>, Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Programs at the Department of Homeland Security. She said in part that…<\/p>\n “Not carrying the network sends a message to the Arab world about America’s willingness to accept information, unfiltered, from the very region we spend so much time talking about.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Kayyem proposed that Al-Jazeera be made available so that Americans can make their own decisions about its content. Cable companies ought not to be the arbiters of what constitutes legitimate news. Reaction to that op-ed was swiftly expressed by right-wing media including Fox Nation who linked to a post on the hysterically misnamed American Thinker. The item stated that AL Jazeera…<\/p>\n “…is filled with anti-American propaganda. It is also awash in anti-Semitism. The material broadcast stokes terror and violence.”<\/p>\n And that it is…<\/p>\n “…a channel that cannot help but inflame tensions and anger and one that is not known for unbiased accuracy.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That sounds more like a description of the Glenn Beck Program. If that’s to be the standard for carriage of news networks on American cable, then Fox News should be immediately banned and removed from all systems.<\/p>\n It’s ironic that the conservative objections to Al-Jazeera come as they are also attempting to defund PBS and NPR. The right likes to complain about imagined assaults on free speech when they control one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and their domination of talk radio is nearly universal. But they simultaneously work to suppress the free speech of those with whom they disagree – or more correctly, those who report honestly, which generally serves to refute the lies propagated by the rightist press.<\/p>\n If you have cable you should immediately call your provider and demand that they carry Al-Jazeera. And while you’re at it, ask them to carry Current TV as well and place it in their basic package.<\/p>\n Also, call your representatives in Washington and demand that they support Public Television and Radio. There are bills that may be coming up for votes this week and we need to present a united front in favor of these invaluable resources. Several organizations are mobilizing support for PBS and NPR. Please visit each of them and sign on to save unbiased, corporate-free news.<\/p>\n PBS: 170 Million Americans for Public Broadcasting<\/a> At a time when some of the most consequential news stories are emanating from the Middle East, America’s cable companies are almost uniformly refusing to carry Al-Jazeera English, the news channel best equipped to cover events on the ground in their native territories. Al-Jazeera has received high marks from a broad spectrum of analysts for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,4],"tags":[868,527,33,405],"class_list":["post-3879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-news","tag-al-jazeera","tag-fox-nation","tag-fox-news","tag-pbs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-10z","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8774,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8774","url_meta":{"origin":3879,"position":0},"title":"Fox News vs. Al-Jazeera: Tales Of Terror And Hypocrisy","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/5\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The news that Qatar-based Al-Jazeera has agreed to purchase Al Gore's Current TV has stirred controversy throughout the mediasphere. For the most part the debate has been driven by conservative xenophobes worried that Sharia law would be imposed on American viewers via x-rays emanating from their television screens. The usual\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8813,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8813","url_meta":{"origin":3879,"position":1},"title":"Fox News Hypocrisy Over Al-Jazeera Hilariously Exposed By Jon Stewart [Video]","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/11\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"As reported here last week, Fox News went on a loopy and hyperbolic panic over the news that Current TV was purchased by Al-Jazeera. They railed against what they called an anti-American network with ties to terrorists when, in reality, Fox News is more closely associated with terrorists than Al-Jazeera.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8998,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8998","url_meta":{"origin":3879,"position":2},"title":"Al Gore Hurts Fox News’ Feelings, So Fox Bashes Current TV Sale Again","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/4\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This morning on Fox & Friends, the kindergarten crew welcomed Rupert Murdoch's personal attorney, Peter Johnson, Jr. (the man with three euphemisms for penis in his name), to engage in yet another round of bashing Al Gore for selling his Current TV network to Al Jazeera. In this episode, Johnson\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10407,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=10407","url_meta":{"origin":3879,"position":3},"title":"Glenn Beck Whines: Cable Carries “The Enemy” Al-Jazeera, But Not Me","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/20\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Professional crybaby, Glenn Beck, let loose again today with a lament that the big, bad cable companies just don't love him enough. Not that it matters, because he loves himself more than enough to compensate. What triggered Beck's latest self-pity party (video below) was today's launch of the Al-Jazeera cable\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10403,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=10403","url_meta":{"origin":3879,"position":4},"title":"Irony Alert: First Issue Of Biased Fox News Newsletter Questions Media Bias","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/20\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This morning marks the debut of a new service by the folks at Fox News aimed at delivering their trademarked GOP-authored propaganda directly to your email inbox. The \"Fox News First\" newsletter introduces itself asking... \"Always wanted Fox\u2019s political must-reads? Now you can have them. Each weekday morning, our DC\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":714,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=714","url_meta":{"origin":3879,"position":5},"title":"Deadline News","author":"Mark NC","date":"12\/20\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"MPAA rejects Gibney's 'Dark' poster The MPAA has rejected the poster art for Alex Gibney's documentary \"Taxi to the Dark Side,\" which traces the pattern of torture practice from Afghanistan's Bagram prison to Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo Bay. The reason for the rejection was the hood over the head of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3879"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3882,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3879\/revisions\/3882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMoveOn: Save NPR and PBS<\/a>
\nFree Press: Don\u2019t Let Congress Silence NPR and PBS<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"