Al Jazeera

Must do better

The Arabs’ premier television network bids for American viewers

See article

Readers' comments


Dr. Waterheater

When and if it becomes available in the U.S. I will watch it. AJE is my other major digital source of world news, after the Economist (print and digital).

Leon Ahams

I always welcome criticism that is rational like this piece. But it is not complete when there is no mention of the flaws of American TV when it comes to international news coverage especially on subjects concerning developing regions like even close-by South America. Now this is an area where Al Jazeera would explore, as they have been doing with AJ English @ajenglish. #ajstream


I'm living in the Middle East right now and as someone used to the BBC, I have to admit Al-Jazeera's breath of coverage embarrasses the Beeb these days. It is what the BBC used to be.

There is a difference between the local and international content and its inability to mention the Qatari regime is a touch embarrassing but overall, its a better reference point for news than CNN and the BBC these days. I flicked over to CNN who were running an untold stories documentary which focused on a US father being told his son had been killed in Iraq. I then thought of the untold thousands of stories from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan recently


I watch Al-Jazeera English and find the breadth and the variety of its coverage admirable. Some of its documentaries are of the highest standards. But it has not so much an achilles heel as a vertable tentacles of heels; some more damaging than others.
The most obvious of these is it's almost painful inability to criticise not only its owners and benefactors(that'll be rude) but its owner's mates, neighbours, and acquantances. We are not talking personally but regionally. This leads to some of the least self-aware programming imaginable particularly in its current affairs documantaries. Few months ago they serialised programmes about how terribly North African immigrants to France are treated by the racist French but I could not help thinking about the treatment immigrants receive in next door Saudi Arabia or Qatar.
Other heels are more hilarious; endearing even than sinister. AJE often combines that easy, knee-jerk anti-americanism so popular amongst some of Western European liberal elites with hopeless touches of anglophilia(Cricket features in its sports reports every single day of the week; lots of moaning about the rain the desert!); expected weepy programming about Palestinian suffering combined with unintended admiration for Israeli democratic vibrancy.
But for all its faults it still enriches the overall global broadcasting by reaching parts of the world others cannot or do want to reach


In truth Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English are two very different species. AJA is targeting Arabic audiences and it's quite a cuckoo nest while AJE is aiming at hooking gullible Westerners and so trying to keep the sense of proportion.


As media outlets go, Al Jazeera is no more biased than American networks like MSNBC and FoxNews; indeed, it is arguably less so. Its bias does bend it in a direction that is deplorable, but not in every report or program. Thus it has filed many reports highly critical of Doha favorites like the MB in Egypt or the FSA in Syria. It also has done more to publicize the outrages of Salafists than any American network ever has, if only because American networks are terrible at anything international. Its exclusion from the American market is actually far more injurious to free speech than its inclusion would be, and represents one of the most glaring hypocrisies of American political life. Let us watch the darn thing! We can make up our own minds, thank you very much!

rsg england

As a British Jew, I watch Al Jazeera on a daily basis, amongst other news on TV, the internet and in print.
As it is an Arab station, I always watch it with the understanding that its bias will be pro-Arab.
I do find the majority of its reports fairly even handed, and it does supply a different perspective that is welcome.
However most TV news seems to becoming a large op-ed with the personal viewpoints and beliefs of the reporters and anchors featuring prominantly in the reports.
All news must be viewed with an element of sceptisism, and multiple opposing sources of news need to be viewed to gain a reasonable picture of that news.
But without all these different news sources, life and liberty would be severely constrained and frankly rather boring.

BR Citizen

Big Media Broadcast is nothing more than BIG BUSINESS, and a successful one has the upper hand in promoting any agenda or line of thought, that is only human nature. The moderation issue between the arabic and english version is based on cultural differences of viewers and intended profit. Why is the english version so appealing? because their cultural, sports, business and documentary perspective of Asia is unattainable by any western network. And just because of that I dont see the US based station being any different and doubt any success, from a business stand point I would go for more aggresive cable tv presence. Why not comming to Latin America, would love to see an AJS.


Anything is better than CurrentTV. All it broadcasts is Michael Moore "documentaries" and other liberal nonsense.

Mustapha Hamoui

That particular broadcast in the photo that you have used, the Americans did love.. As the arabic writing in the bottom reads, this was a report on the killing of bin Laden..


People love competition. As there's more and more consolidation in the media industry, it seems people really do hanker for small, local, more representative press. Al Jazeera's success may be its own worst enemy.


There is no such thing as unbiased news and "must do better" would be a fitting motto for any media company, The Economist Group included.

Al Jazeera serves as a useful counterweight in a world of information otherwise dominated by the likes of CNN.


I often check in on Al Jazeera English, but I always take what they offer with a grain of salt. A lot of the op-eds and commentary on the website are a weird mash of mostly leftist, anti-American opinions. I'm not against this in principle, as long as there is something useful in the argument, but this is often not the case. The broadcasts are a little better, and in general I think that AJE does good reporting on a lot of areas otherwise under-reported in Western media (their stories on Southeast Asia are pretty good).

However, it is ultimately a network funded by the Qatari government. In this sense, it's in about the same place as "Russia Today", but with better production values. I agree that with Libya and Syria AJ really began pushing a Qatari agenda, and in general their coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict is best ignored.

But none of this is to say that it shouldn't be offered more widely in the US. If people want to hate it and not watch it, fine, but they should have that option. So far only DC and NYC has it in cable tv packages, and offering it to some Americans but not others is just weird.

hmy_ in reply to Kochevnik

It's fun to read AJE's opinion page when an American diplomat is in Qatar or vice versa -- suddenly, the anti-American slant is completely gone and all we see is cheerleading of the close relationship between the two countries.

Phil Perspective in reply to Kochevnik

What do you think the U.S. networks are? Propaganda of the U.S. government!! Take off your blinders!!

hmy_ in reply to Phil Perspective

Not really, unless you honestly believe that the same networks who constantly demonize our political leaders are somehow in the tank for those very people, which is so overwhelmingly stupid that I don't know how you were able to turn your computer on.

RT and Al Jazeera are literally funded and run by top government officials and their editorial stance is by mandate government propaganda. By contrast, the US press is legally protected from any such interference in the First Amendment of the US Constitution.


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