Why Al-Jazeera is good for America

I'll start off with this: I couldn't care less if Google, YouTube, News Corp, GE, or Zamboni Inc. shared profit with Al-Jazeera. No matter what you've been told by any of the talking heads, politicians, or your next door neighbor, think again about what everyone says about Al-Jazeera.



I will probably ramble for about 600 or so words, so if you don't have a few minutes or aren't fully awake, I'd save this one for later.

I believe Al-Jazeera has been misrepresented and its merits overlooked by many in the United States. Over the past few years, Americans have become accustomed to hearing about Osama's latest cave tape or a beheading video on Al-Jazeera or its MSNBC-esque stepchild Al-Arabiya. Unfortunately for us, and for Al-Jazeera, the American public associates these pan-Arab networks with terrorist propaganda. Al-Jazeera, or AJ as I will now call it because I'm already tired of finding the hyphen on the keyboard, is a network with questionable integrity and credibility, I won't argue with anyone on those points. Call them the Middle East version of "Hard Copy" or "A Current Affair" but without the celebrity gossip and much more gore.

I think it is important to look at the Middle East as a whole to better understand the benefits of AJ. Born in Doha, Qatar and funded by the ridiculously rich Emir, AJ was the first network in the entire Arab world whose chief doesn't worry about being dragged into the desert and tortured. This is otherwise known as freedom of the press. Think of what our hemisphere would be like if a free press had reached our shores in 1996. Opening up the presses in a neighborhood of the world home to the most brutal dictators, the largest earnings discrepancies between rich and poor, and the most intolerant strain of religion (Wahhabism, NOT Islam in general) gaining wide acceptance in the world today is a wonderful thing. AJ's greatest measure of success is the fact that nobody in the Arab world likes them. They've been thrown out of Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and Bahrain at various times for reporting stories that those in power didn't find pleasing.

The fact of the matter is, AJ is getting news and divergent opinions out to millions of people who might never have gotten them otherwise. I'm not just speaking about the Arab/Muslim world either. If everyone got AJ in their homes and watched half an hour a day, wouldn't we as a culture be more educated about the geopolitics of the Middle East? I could use that argument for many areas of the world. I don't know jack about many of the pressing issues of Sub-Saharan Africa. If the world's poorest people had a voice, do you think that we would be allowing Darfur to happen? Our country would also be better prepared to fight the war on terror if we had a warrior class who knew less about Paris Hilton and more about Mohammed.

If any of you would like to see a different perspective, I would highly suggest that you check out Frontline's News War series. Frontline is awesome, and not just because you can watch all their episodes free online forever. There is also a great interview with Thomas Friedman for all of you neo-cons to read about how much he likes AJ.

AJ has obvious problems. They have suspected terrorists work for them (check the wikipedia page and look at the Spain header). They show footage that would make me sick. We could all add a couple more. But really, is it really worth it for the US to try to stifle a free voice in the position we're currently in?