Al Jazeera headed to a channel near you...

Al Jazeera is free on HD TV antennas in the East Coast. It's also free if you have a non Dish/DirectTV digital satellite receiver. It's not as bad as people make it out to be. They won a Peabody, and other Journalism awards last year.

 

I don't have an opinion. I think it is neo-liberal, pseudo-intellecutal/enlightened nonsense to act as if Al-Jazeera (a network that has aired beheadings of U.S. soldiers) has anything valid to say or that watching it will add to one's world view. That being said, they have just as much of a right to air as Fox News, CNN or MSNBC. That is the beauty of this country (which they so eagerly condemn). Conversely, cable providers have every right to follow suit with Time Warner, choose not to do business with Al-Jazeera and drop the network and I hope that more networks do.

 

They have a right to air but I also have the right to never watch it.

 

Provided the ratings are good, my guess is they will be even worse than Current TV.

 

Well it was enough news that the US decided to murder their journalists covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

No, that would be bad Kel.

 

I thought Joy was on HLN?

 

I think Time Warner Cable dropping Current/al-Jazeera is being a tad bit overblown. Now while I think that al-Jazeera would be a great addition to any cable line up, one has to take into account that there is a very high likelihood that no one will watch it just as how no one watched Current TV. Time Warner Cable was already considering dropping Current TV anyways due to how pathetic the ratings were and the sale most likely gave Time Warner Cable the excuse it needed to do it right away.

 

MSNBC is such a mixed bag for me. On one hand their morning/afternoon programming is the best morning news content out on cable. Vastly superior to that of CNN and Fox News. But their primetime line-up makes Fox News look subtle.

 

Ahh.

 

I used to call Current TV the Titanic.

 

I think Time Warner Cable should at least give al-Jazeera a chance before dropping it. It could end up doing better than Current. It's perfectly reasonable to drop al-Jazeera if it doesn't perform, but I think it at least deserves the chance to succeed or fail. That said, al-Jazeera probably should have done a better job than acquiring Current's channel space. It probably would have been smarter to acquire a channel with a slightly higher viewership to make the transition better as opposed to a channel that no one gave a crap about.

 

But of course, you will still allow your students to use the SHH forums as a research tool on who the best James Bond was and whether Batman should be rebooted, right?

 

I've been watching Al Jazeera online for years. It's not what people make it out to be in the states. In fact, I'm a little baffled by the reputation it has with some people, but less baffled since most of the people who denounce it to me have never actually bothered watching it. It's some of the best international affairs reporting you'll find anywhere.

It's also pretty funny to me to hear Israel complain about Al Jazeera spreading "propaganda". I suppose they would know though, seeing how Israel is an expert at spreading propaganda.