Al Jazeera's Coverage Of Gaza War Hardly Seen In US

Last June, Al Jazeera English produced a report from Gaza about a young couple who were preparing to marry during the relative calm of the cease-fire between Hamas and the Israeli government, a time when they could finally shop for furniture and, as the reporter put it, let themselves "dream that a happy life together is within reach."

Now that reporter, Ayman Mohyeldin, a former CNN producer, can be seen with a helmet and flak jacket answering questions from an anchor back in the studio in Doha, Qatar, describing the Israeli bombing and ground campaign in Gaza intended to stop Hamas missiles from being fired into Israel.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[alexa07]

I am glad that so many here are viewing Al Jazeera/English. If you are curious about the entire world (as well as events in the Middle East), this is the best connection for you. A bonus is that there are hardly any commercials. It flat out beats every American source for international coverge. Is even better BBC & CNN International. Unfortunately, our news coverage in this country has become seriously compromised by the Israel lobbies & their American friends in Congress, the American media & academia. These special interests have succeeded in denying Al Jazeera/English to our satellite & most cable networks, but this has NOT kept the word from getting out about how good this news source is. Time will tell, but the Gaza situation highlights why we so desperately need better news sources for foreign events.

LinkTV Mosaic is also a valuable source for those of you who are interested in clips from news casts from various countries, including Israel, in the Middle East & North Africa.

[timberdoodle]

You have to remember the U.S. ranks 43rd in the world on freedom of the press behind some 3rd world countries. The lack of freedom is a real contributing factor to some of the ignorance many Americans continually show on issues not directly involved in their own little corner of their state.

People outside of the U.S. refer to CNN as the comedy channel as most people watch news programs from the BBC and Canadian stations where the press is filtered to a degree but not even close to the amount of filtering in the U.S.

[OutsiderSA]

The USA news channels competes with Hollywood - journalists they are not.

[Mollabaji]

People outside U.S. don't rely on BBC either particularly since 9/11 because they are truly biased and simply follow U.S. networks. Most people I know outside the country do watch German DW, Chinese CCTV internatona, Iranian Press TV, Aljazeera, and France 24 as well as Euronews, All in English. The best in my opinion is China's CCTV. Are these accessible inisde U.S.?

[SiberianRat]

I think Al Jazeera is great--our major news networks pale in comparison. Not only is their coverage of Gaza a zillion times better, but they cover a variety of issues thoroughly and effectively. There was a 30 min. story yesterday about coca farming in Peru and the problems with mafia, terrorists, police, poverty, etc.--trul­y interesting and informative.

[sonoffestus]

Agreed! I just posted a similar comment on another thread. I also find the Christian Science Monitor to be a very good and reliable news provider. If you haven't check it out do, I think you may find it interesting.

MSM is great if you have an urge for throwing shoes.

[tomas0808]

Al Jazeera have a good rep as journalists. I gave up on stateside news years ago. It does seem extremely ridiculous, that I have to go to overseas news publicatio­ns/network­s to get accurate news and journalism about my own country. But that's what consolidation of media gets you. Most people are apparently okay with BS

[walk0nwalls]

I watched it from Youtube. Proud Al-Jazeera regular here.

[SIDQ]

Me too. I've been following the war on Gaza on Livestation. Completely disgusted with the lack of balance from all other stations. Thank you Al Jazerra.

[ndnndpendent]

There are many of us in America who appreciate Al Jazeera's efforts to show the truth and depth of the crisis in Gaza. It is through the efforts of the courageous journalists like Ayman Mohyeldin that Americans have a view of the damage their weapons--used by Israel, are inflicting on a population that cannot defend itself and cannot leave. The people of Gaza have endured a blockade for almost two years and it was a humanitarian crisis before the latest war.

[MrBwood]

what?
So the only news people read is on the television. I get NO news from that. If you want to see news from anywhere in the world there is THE INTERNET!!!!!!!
this is a silly.

[goodmarina]

I hear that many who have facebook accts or other web sites that display sympathy to the plight of the average Gaza citizen or express outrage over the situation are experiencing an interesting phenomenon: their accounts & web sites are being hacked into and pro-Israel informatio­n/propagan­da is being posted.

Anyone else hear this?

[OutsiderSA]

No but this is in circulation:

Dear friends,
We hold the [sic] military supremacy, yet fail the battle over the international media. We need to buy time for the IDF to succeed, and the least we can do is spare some (additional) minutes on the net. The ministry of foreign affairs is putting great efforts in balancing the media, but we all know it's a battle of numbers. The more we post, blog, talkback, vote – the more likely we gain positive sentiment.

I was asked by the ministry of foreign affairs to arrange a network of volunteers, who are willing to contribute to this effort. If you're up to it you will receive a daily messages & media package as well as targets.

If you wish to participate, please respond to this email.
Richard Silverstein - Hasbara Spam Alert - January 11, 2009 "The Guardian"

[StevieRae]

I realized the filtering of news stories from the middle east 5 years ago. Starting going to "Google" news and reading the daily events as depicted by media sources worldwide.

Eye opening in how the rest of the world sees and reads their news. Open press and no propaganda, HA!

You can see the real management and control of the message throughout our country. Most newspapers around the country merely reprint wire service stories in their papers making it all sound and taste a franchise hamburger joint. Open a newspaper anywhere and it all looks and "tastes" the same.

[Hare]

Though I feel for all the innocent in any conflict and I am not happy with the actions of the gov of Israel. I am more angered with the abandonment by their own "Muslim brothers" to those in Gaza". That tells me a lot about the "religiousness of these rich Arabs who use religion as the fundamentalist Christian Preachers know too well.. Love is but a word. Where are the actions of love? Maybe its because Palestinians have no money for their luxurious Hotels.

[johnnyjust]

Why not watch Hamas tv? Oh, most of you do. 'Splains it.

[RoloTomassi]

Why not engage your brain? Oh, you're a GOPer--'nuff said....

[sonoffestus]

Johnnyjust­...leave. Go look for a brain. A mind is a terrible thing to lose.

[SadButWiser]

Al-Jazeera Engllish is the Huffinton Post + the BBC of TV. We no longer watch CNN if the same news is broadcast by Al-Jazeera. It feels more truthful.

[westcoastsc]

CNN has not been the same since Turner sold it to the CIA front company, TimeWarner.

[VOTER]

Agree.

[fcsakes]

I do not care who broke the ceasefire - it reminds me of fighting siblings, it's always his brother's fault.

One thing I do know for sure - those who are hurt, those who are dying, those who are crippled, and those who are terrified every moment of their lives are the young, the elderly, the lame, the mothers, grandmothers, the civilians on both sides who need and deserve peace in their little time on earth.

I despise both armies. They are liars, instigators, murderers. They are like all men of war.

[johnnyjust]

Yes, fighting siblings. One who hits the other 6,000 times until the other says, "Okay, that's enough," and smacks the instigator in the head.

Gee, who's to blame? Hard to say, unless you have your eyes open.

[rocky4460]

Smaks the instigator on the head? If killing 900 people and wounding scores of others is 'smacking', then looks like we only gave Iraqis a time-out for being naughty.

[kmdippenger]

I think it's really more complicated than this.

[fiorastar]

More like the other smacks the other in the head with a TRUCK! And that doesn't work for siblings, either.

[Jim Ellis]

Lack of Jazeera coverage anywhere on any issue is a blessing. Jazeera makes Fox News look actually fair and balanced.

[nickwib]

This is certainly not my impression. Why not get Livestation for free and judge for yourselves.

http://www.livestation.com/

[peterla]

Just as the New York Times "accidentally" got the name of Livestation.com wrong in their first article, (calling it LiveStream.com), which provides a free high quality internet stream, in todays New York times, they correctly identified Livestation.com, but then they provided and incorrect version of the Al Jazeera website, instead giving the arabic version, unreadable to most Americans. The correct english website is http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/ How the New York Times can get the details wrong multiple times when reporting on this is beyond me, and leads me to believe it was not by accident.

[SiberianRat]

Have you actually watched it or are you just repeating Rumsfeldian rhetoric?

[irisda]

I bet you simply made that assumption without ever watching Al Jazeera.
If you're gonna have an opinion at least try to have an informed one.
You listen blindly to what one side is saying :"Al Jazeera is bad they support terrorists". They don't, they just manage to go out there and get facts and show to the viewers. This is what real news outlets are supposed to do.

[RoloTomassi]

Come on Jim, admit it; you've never even once watched Al Jazeera.

[PaceSetter]

The Electronic Intifada (EI), found at electronicIntifada.net, publishes news, commentary, analysis, and reference materials about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict from a Palestinian perspective. EI is the leading Palestinian portal for information about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its depiction in the media.

http://electronicintifada.net/new.shtml

[Mollabaji]

PaceSetter,

Thank you.