Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ManintheMiddle]

Occasionally I view Al-Jazeera News, the Arab TV channel just to see what the other side is doing. Keep your enemies close, I always say.

It's fun trying to see how long it will take to guess what their spin will be on the news segment they're broadcasting. Usually I can figure it out in a matter of minutes but sometimes it's not so obvious.

Case in point a 20 minute news segment on a town in Alabama that is host to several smaller defense contractors.

The first shoe dropped early on in the broadcast when the American reporter interviewed the mother of a soldier. She is opposed to the war in Iraq; her son is not. She's Black, and moved him to the South to escape the gang violence of Chicago's Southside only to have him decide to enlist after high school instead of moving on to college. She seemed resigned to the situation.

Now of course the roving reporter didn't bother to seek out the parent of a child who supports the war, giving the uninformed international viewer the impression that this young man joined because there were so few other opportunities and, as the mother said, it's a military town. No effort to point out that the vast majority of Southern towns don't have military establishments. Better to leave an impression that it's somehow an armed camp, with God and country coming before family.

That was the start of the spin cycle on the Arab washing machine.

The other shoe didn't drop until the last minute of the broadcast when the reporter, not repeating or summarizing what the mother said but reading from his cue cards, said: "The high school seems to exist for the local military employers. These are jobs guaranteed for life in a slow economy. And this sleepy town (all Southern towns are, don't you know) thrives because a faraway and supposedly out-of-sight and out-of-mind war supports its economy." Spin cycle over.

I just wanted to puke although I could see the punch line coming.

No doubt some regular posters here will view the replay of this segment and gobble it all up. But this is what Al-Jazeerah does: not in-your-face anti-Americanims but something far subtler.

No attempt to get the son's side of the story, really. No need to give pretense to fair and balanced coverage even.

So what's your favorite Al-Jazeera story as of late? And what do you make of this news network?

[canuckistan]

Your all-caps thread titles are a bit of a dead giveaway dontcha think?

[Gamecock]

GREAT EXPOSE, STEVE!!! I THINK NO ONE KNEW THAT AL-JAZEERA WAS BIASED!

YOU NEED A HOBBY.

[VanIslander]

all news spin cycle is set on PERMANENT PRESS

[Chuvok]

Fox News is worse, by far!

[ManintheMiddle]

Notice how none of those who replied have anything substantive to say.

Of course it's biased, but you either missed or dodge the point once again.

What I find laughable is how many posters here equate Al-Jazeera news coverage with that of major Western networks.

As for bashing FoxNews, most of you seldom if even view it but smugly debase it. That's a typical liberal/left attitude. In fact, Geraldo is not a conservative, neither is Alan Colmes, and neither is Juan Williams of NPR, among others. At least FoxNews commentators declare their political allegiances, which is more than I can say for the other media.

canuckistan barked: