Al Jazeera headed to a channel near you...

[Schlosser85]

I agree.

But I don't think that means airing a video of someone getting his head sawed off on national television. It's disrespectful to the victim and his family.

 

[Marvolo]

I don't think the news needs to show people being decapitated.

What's the value of it? What have we learned?

The public learned the war was far from over and the consequences of intolerance, violence, and much about these radicals and what they were willing to do. The public was becoming apathetic at that point. The decapitation changed that for a short time. That is a problem in today's war. They want to hide the consequences of war then expect the average person to give a whole hearted damn. War is ugly and it should be shown.

People want to fuss about drone attacks and the like but we dont show the children and the innocents it kills. Well you want to stir up the fires and stop the deaths of innocents you need to show the innocents who have died. Show the destruction and the devastation. Actually show war. The news is here to show the truth and spread news. Hiding behind censorship and political correctness only hinders that.

I know me personally as a young person seeing those people decapitated brought the war home and made me appreciate more the sacrifice our citizens and soldiers made in the war. Its something I will never forget.

I agree.

But I don't think that means airing a video of someone getting his head sawed off on national television. It's disrespectful to the victim and his family.

And how is it disrespectful? It wasnt shown for ****s and giggles. It was shown because the horrors these people faced should be seen not just talked about. Because of that video I will never forget those people nor their faces. They are as clear today as they were the day it happened. I remember one of them refused to go quietly and tried to escape out of fear and survival which the media didnt even mention. I guarantee I could not say the same had I never seen the video.

 

[Schlosser85]

I know if I was held down screaming as my head was slowly cut off, I wouldn't want it played on national TV, and neither would my parents.

 

[dnno1]

Time Warner Cable Will Consider Carrying Al Jazeera's U.S. Network

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/03/time-warner-cable-al-jazeera-america_n_2404879.html

"We are keeping an open mind and as the service develops, we will evaluate whether it makes sense, for our customers, to launch the network," Time Warner Cable said in a statement first reported by The New York Times.

 

[Zatanna]

It kind of baffles me that I live in a time where it's argued whether or not beheadings should be shown on tv. News especially.

It's just like... I don't understand it. I try to take the time to understand differing view points but that one, I can't.

 

[Schlosser85]

Frankly, no one has any right to see me being brutally murdered on the news.

 

[Kelly]

Seeing people beheaded on TV does nothing positive for me whatsoever, it doesn't bring anything home, it doesn't make it more real, etc....

What brought the Iraq war home to me, was one of my students being killed by a landmine. I didn't need to see it happen, I just needed to get the phone call. I didn't need to see pictures, I just needed to see that funeral procession go in front of my school with his flag draped coffin in it.

I'm sorry, but if seeing soldiers beheaded is what "brings it home to you"? You must be desensitized to a radical degree...sorry, but that is how I see it. Just wow....

 

[Thundercrack85]

It kind of baffles me that I live in a time where it's argued whether or not beheadings should be shown on tv. News especially.

It's just like... I don't understand it. I try to take the time to understand differing view points but that one, I can't.

Well, isn't the controversy over the politics / intent?

They show gruesome stuff on TV all the time. Or is it a matter of privacy?

I've become so desensitized to violence, it wouldn't do anything for me one way or the other.

Every day countless people die. I never knew any of them, and I probably never would. Hard to keep caring after a while.

 

[Schlosser85]

I've seen Daniel Pearl's video.

It didn't illuminate some truth for me.

 

[jmc]

I've actually found Al-Jazeera English to be a very informative source for world news.

 

[Hobgoblin]

I'm all for hearing more voices in the media. Hopefully Rupert Murdock wont buy this outlet, too.

 

[regwec]

I know if I was held down screaming as my head was slowly cut off, I wouldn't want it played on national TV, and neither would my parents.

I can't argue with that. I don't necessarily endorse that sort of thing being broadcast to the masses, but I do think that the darkest corners of war ought to be present in the public domain. I number myself among those who are suspicious of the cosy collusion between the press and the political class, and I am no more inclined to trust one broadcaster more than any other. At least you can trust what you have seen with your own eyes, even if you wish you hadn't.

I do think it all depends on a public interest criteria, however. I do believe it was in the public interest to see the shocking abuse meted out by American troops in Abu Ghraib. I also think that evidence of the torture techniques used by Western governments should be exposed to the public. We ought to know what the executive wings of our countries are up to, without relying on hearsay from journalists.

As for Daniel Pearl's murder...you would need a heart of stone to want to watch that, or endorse anyone else watching that. I have, and I regret it to some extent. But I know I have seen the evil core of jihad, and I don't have to rely on politicians or their friends in the media to tell me it is evil.

 

[The Question]

Al-Jazeera (a network that has aired beheadings of U.S. soldiers)

That never happened. The news agencies that reported this later retracted it.

I have nothing against Al Jazeera. I've watched their news coverage before, it can be extremely informative. They have their biases, but they're not the biases American news agencies have. They offer a very valuable perspective.

I also find the notion that they're anti-American to be absurd. They're not anti-American, what they are is without an American patriotic bias. They publish stories that make America look very bad from time to time, because sometimes America does bad things that are worth reporting. Anyone who thinks they're Anti-American is painfully naive. They're goddamn tame when compared to their peers in the Arab news world, who regularly criticize them of being pro-American.

Those things do not equate, and never will equate to what these terrorists groups have done.

Either way, innocent people are dead. How is it that one is better than the other?

 

[chamber-music]

They won't show any of that beheading stuff on Al Jazeera english anyways. You can argue the ethics of them showing it on the Arab version but cuturally its probably more acceptable to show executions on tv in parts of the middle east. People are used to seeing those things and probably wouldn't even blink at that sort of stuff.

You could she Saddam Hussien get hanged on Youtube days after it happened and many western news outlets showed the dead bodies of Sadam Hussein's sons when they were killed. They didn't show them being killed but they showed the bloody corpses.

Al Jazeera has a global news network that the likes of only the BBC and CNN have. Al Jazeera can get footage in places in the middle east that other western media outlets can't.

 

[The Question]

And, again, they never showed any beheadings in the first place. There's no evidence that they ever did. It was a rumor.

 

[chamber-music]

Well the rumor was a pretty good one because its seem to of stuck in alot of peoples minds.

 

[The Question]

Well the rumor was a pretty good one because its seem to of stuck in alot of peoples minds.

So do a lot of not-true things Newscorp says. They're really good at that.

 

[Schlosser85]

Look how many people will believe until their dying breath that Obama is a Muslim.

 

[Midnyte_Sun]

I think the US government/media was pissed because it was broadcoasting via the internet and on their Arabic news channel the unedited Osama and Al Qaeda messages to the world.

They were also incorrectly grouped with other Arabic news stations that were criticized for showing portions of the beheading of Daniel Pearl. Some on their Arabic news channel use some different wording showing an Anti-US War on Terror bias as stated by the mother of Daniel Pearl in an OP-ED NY times 2007 article about the Arabic broadcast:

"For example, the phrase “war on terror” is invariably preceded by the contemptuous prefix “so-called.” The words “terror” and “insurgency” are rarely uttered with a straight face, usually replaced with “resistance” or “struggle.” The phrase “war in Iraq” is often replaced by “war on Iraq” or “war against Iraq.”

 

[The Question]

I have that same bias. I don't hate America, I just think what we've been doing in the region is stupid.

 

[Marvolo]

And, again, they never showed any beheadings in the first place. There's no evidence that they ever did. It was a rumor.

This could just be faulty memory jumbling up multiple things, but when I saw the beheading video online back then an Al-Jazeera logo was on the video and there was a reporter discussing it.

And do people seriously think an english news broadcast will show beheadings? Its America. We don't broadcast anything slightly controversial let alone something like a beheading. At most this will be Al Jazeera Lite.

I would love if we could get an unbiased broadcast show that would disect our politics and parties with no american bias. A news station that calls both parties on all their BS and points out the stupidity of our government and politics. I doubt we will get that, but it would be nice.

 

[Kelly]

I will give the network a chance, but I don't think that just because you are not an American Network you will be an unbiased about America.

 

[Thundercrack85]

I haven't really seen too much Al Jazeera, but what I have seen wasn't particularly biased.

Hard to be as biased as some of the major American networks.

I've seen state run media less biased.

 

[Shemtov]

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

Exactly.
It will only have peoiple of a certain political stripe watching it, but I don't think those people exist in the US enough to sustain a channel.
They think they do, but that's because those people can be extremely vocal sometimes, and there's a tendency to overestimate a silent minority.

 

[Shemtov]

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.

Please don't try to hijack the thread.