Is Democracy only for America?
Rick Zednik's "Inside Al Jazeera" points out that Al Jazeera's main goal was "to modernize and democratize Qatar."
In one of their shows, The Opposite Direction, hosted by Faisal Al Qasim, guests w/ opposing views square off, w/o any bias from the station. In comparison, Fox News' Bill O' Reilly is known for bringing on guests w/ opposing views but instead of being partial he throws his views down the guests throat. This implies to his audience that the guest is speaking nonsense and they lack credibility. In a way they are limiting news and views, which is undemocratic.
In addition, Fox News is known for bringing opposing guests that aren't aggressive w/ their stance and sometimes they even agree with the Fox correspondent.
From these examples it seems as if Al Jazeera is more democratic than some of America's news stations and this does not sit well with Americans. Zednick states "Al Jazeera's programming irked the United States so much that Colin Powell expressed concern about its inflammatory rhetoric to the Qatari emir during their October 3 meeting. Six weeks later, on November 13, a pair of 500 pound U. S. bombs destroyed Al Jazeera's Kabul bureau." Coincidence?
The United States believes democracy is good to have, good to fight for and good to impose on other countries yet when it is used towards them in a way that seems negative it becomes a problem. Fair somehow equates to bias when it is not in America's favor.
In one of their shows, The Opposite Direction, hosted by Faisal Al Qasim, guests w/ opposing views square off, w/o any bias from the station. In comparison, Fox News' Bill O' Reilly is known for bringing on guests w/ opposing views but instead of being partial he throws his views down the guests throat. This implies to his audience that the guest is speaking nonsense and they lack credibility. In a way they are limiting news and views, which is undemocratic.
In addition, Fox News is known for bringing opposing guests that aren't aggressive w/ their stance and sometimes they even agree with the Fox correspondent.
From these examples it seems as if Al Jazeera is more democratic than some of America's news stations and this does not sit well with Americans. Zednick states "Al Jazeera's programming irked the United States so much that Colin Powell expressed concern about its inflammatory rhetoric to the Qatari emir during their October 3 meeting. Six weeks later, on November 13, a pair of 500 pound U. S. bombs destroyed Al Jazeera's Kabul bureau." Coincidence?
The United States believes democracy is good to have, good to fight for and good to impose on other countries yet when it is used towards them in a way that seems negative it becomes a problem. Fair somehow equates to bias when it is not in America's favor.
posted by Z. Jarvis at 11:29 AM
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