From Newsweek: Not Coming to America The U.S. censors Al Jazeera for no good reason

[Better Believe It]

Not Coming to America
The U.S. censors Al Jazeera for no good reason
by Wadah Khanfar
Wadah Khanfar is director-general of the Al Jazeera network, which is based in Doha, Qatar.


.... the Bush administration was intent on promoting democracy across the Middle East. But as it waged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it also sought to filter the information flowing to the American people. Washington’s “with us or against us” mentality, regrettably, quickly demonized Al Jazeera for daring to provide alternative viewpoints on wars that had, to put it bluntly, been sanitized for American audiences. Already famous in the Middle East for telling both sides of the story, Al Jazeera was not about to compromise its professional standards and ignore the human realities of war on the ground.

What stunned us then, as it does today, is the insistence by U.S. operators that Americans are not interested. From a commercial standpoint, they argued, Al Jazeera was not worth their precious bandwidth. Our figures prove otherwise. In recent days, our online viewership has spiked by 2,500 percent. And more than half of those eyeballs are coming from the U.S.!

We are unique because our reporters understand the social, political, and historical fabric of the societies they cover. They speak the language. They know the terrain. This makes our news distinctive. It is journalism with depth. So it’s mind-boggling that Al Jazeera cannot share that valuable work in a land that prides itself on a free press.

But in the end the truth finds a way. Ironically, like the people on the streets of Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, and Sudan, the people of America, too, have been defying limits. They’ve adapted, watching our live streams online and our YouTube channel. They’re spreading our headlines virally across social media. A new age of journalism is emerging, and we are succeeding by empowering a new generation of reporters to thrive in it. It’s a wonder the West’s most powerful country doesn’t get to watch.

Read the full article at:

http://www.newsweek.com/2011/02/05/not-coming-to-america.html

[golddigger]

1. Freedom, Democracy! Go USA! freakin BS

[Better Believe It]

2. Al Jazeera English Sees Unprecedented U.S. Demand Through Online Campaign

PRESS RELEASE

Al Jazeera English Sees Unprecedented U.S. Demand Through Online Campaign
February 4, 2011

Thousands of Americans are demanding their cable and satellite providers carry the international news channel Al Jazeera English in the US.

Responding to a growing U.S. demand, particularly since the beginning of its Egypt coverage, Al Jazeera English launched an online Demand Al Jazeera campaign on Thursday, which allowed visitors to its website to request that their cable providers carry Al Jazeera English.

In just 24 hours, over 10,000 email letters have been sent from Americans across the country - from New York City to Englewood, Colorado, to Jackson, Mississippi - demanding their cable providers carry the channel.

Using its website and social networks including Facebook, Twitter, and Meetup.com, Al Jazeera has been building a community passionate about international news, proving demand for the channel. More than 300,000 people have mentioned or referenced Al Jazeera on Twitter since the network started using promoted features on the site. Over 5,000 joined the campaign on Twitter on February 4th, using #demandaljazeera, and directing followers to the Demand Al Jazeera website.

The number of Al Jazeera meetups on Meetup.com is at 286 and continues to grow.

The Al Jazeera English website has received unprecedented traffic over the past week. Alexa, the Web Information Company owned by Amazon.com, reported that the Al Jazeera website surpassed the NewYork Times website in reach last week.

Mohamed Nanabhay, the Head of Online for Al Jazeera English said, The US response to our coverage has been phenomenal and our cosmopolitan appeal clearly speaks to an international audience. We remain committed to making our coverage accessible to as many people as possible and are humbled that our audience has taken up the call to demand that cable providers carry Al Jazeera English.

http://www.eyeofdubai.com/v1/news/newsdetail-49699.htm

[Better Believe It]

3. Let's meetup to DEMAND AL JAZEERA on US television!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x351468

[seafan]

4. Thanks for this, Better Believe It.

Cross-posting your thread here.

[Better Believe It]

14. OK

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x339065

[Iterate]

5. World Press Freedom Day 2011 in DC, early May

This ought to be an interesting topic at the inevitable demonstration for that event.

[WillyT]

6. K & R !!!

:kick:

[tavalon]

7. I have no stake in this, even though I have watched the internet Al Jezeera all week,

for I do not allow cable to come into my house. Therefore, this isn't my fight.

[spanone]

8. hey newsweek...bu$h* adm. didn't give a SHIT about promoting democracy

not a SHIT

and bu$h* had a good reason.....the truth was something cheney and all wanted to stifle....

[brooklynite]

9. The problem is the phrase "in recent days"

Yes, I'll agree that, in the light of current protests in Egypt, interest in AJE has spiked. But, one this story fades from public attention (and it will), interest in the network will also drop off. The average American has a limited interest in hard news, and even less in news from outside the US.

[EFerrari]

11. AJE reports news inside the US much better than the networks

or the cable infotainment channels.

[DCKit]

15. The fact that they simply report the news without editorializing is a sure sign...

they're one of the few honest news sources.

[EFerrari]

16. They're better than we have, any way.

The anchors still sometimes ask questions which are frames for drama but in general, they go about things more as ours used to before the Republicans bought the media.

[Cleita]

12. We were pretty interested during the Iraqi invasion and

back then Al Jazeera had only a small website accessible in the USA that we overwhelmed. I would probably watch them a lot if there was 24/7 coverage like CNN used to have before they became Fox News II.

[brooklynite]

13. Politically aware people who post to blogsites are not the average demographic...

Cable networks have millions of customers, and will offer the channels most of them want (or are willing to pay for).

[EFerrari]

17. Critical thinking is a habit, though, and one our media discourages

when that is unnecessary.

[Turborama]

23. Al Jazeera English do have 24/7 coverage.

I have posted details here about how to you can get it for free, now: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x358313

Also, here's their regularly updated schedule: http://english.aljazeera.net/Services/Schedule/ProgramSchedule.aspx

:hi:

[Cleita]

10. They have a good reason. It's to keep us in the dark

and the special oil and military interests in the Middle East who prop up our political mess and are in control of our government. Fortunately, we always seem to find a way to get the news. Unfortunately, many of the Tea Party Republicans and other dummies don't and will vote against their own and the country's best interest all the time.

[roamer65]

18. It is kept out to keep the US pro-Israel.

If you see the truth, you will end up disgusted with the entire ME scene.

I'd like to pull US aid from all them over there.

[Chan790]

19. I feel so privileged now.

All because my cable company decided somewhat-recently (like in the last 2 weeks) to add AJ-E to its' services on a trial basis, without any announcement or advertisement of such.

So yeah, if you live in suburban-DC/MD and your cable company is RCN, you have Al Jazeera English at-least P/T every-day for the time being. It's in the low twenties somewhere, channel 23, I think. Watch it so that they'll feel compelled to keep it.

[melm00se]

20. just an observation

and a question.

online viewership jumped 2500%. cool.

but what was the baseline #?

1 viewer to 25 viewers = 2400% increase

worth the cost of adding? no

1000 viewers to 25000 viewers?

maybe

10000 to 250000?

getting there

100000 to 2500000?

yup

but then comes the next question:

how many will stick around after this event?

news viewership is event driven. big stuff happening = big spike in viewers; nothing happening = the reverse.

Plus, what does AJN charge for their content? cutting edge technology aside (IPTV is still a few years off as the equipment, especially at the set top box, is a pricier than the normal equipment), bandwidth is finite. The provider can only stuff so much down the pipe.

Now, if i were king, I would use some of the flex channels (the ones that get dropped when things like March Madness comes along) and negotiate with AJN for a short term pilot to see if the viewership, both short term and long term is there. But, I am not king, bean counters are and that's the song we have to sing.

[Turborama]

22. Here's a graph and link to a site with some figures...

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/aljazeera.net

As for your question about costs, AJE comes with BBC World, CNN International, Sky News, Russia Today, CCTV and Faux as part of the basic package where I live. But I get Satellite TV, which I think is much more widely available around the world than cable.

[xchrom]

21. Recommend

[Turborama]

24. Washington Post On The "Demand Al-Jazeera In The USA" Campaign

Here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x349857

New post from me about it, too: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x358313



http://www.livestation.com/downloads

[Jkid]

25. This is another good example of widespread demand

by the cable operators refuse to answer the demand.

What I really think about the cable operators refusal to carry the channel is that Al Jazeera English is just hard news. Hard news is profitable, but it's not as profitable as soft news or stereography news reporting. They know that if they answer the request, instead of having politically passive Americans, you will have politically active Americans. The more people that are politically active, the less audience other news networks have. Worse, to them if Al Jazeera English gets really big in America, the other news networks will be actually forced to compete to gain those viewers back. Even if it means raising the standards of their news operations.

And raising the standards of news operations, means more money spent, and they will pass on the cost in part to the cable companies.

So it's all about money, cable companies see it as profitable to keep Americans politically passive.

[54anickel]

26. Funny, I remember a time when post from AJ were suspect here on DU. n/t

[Turborama]

27. When was that and why? n/t

[54anickel]

28. Back during the run up to the war. As to why, I don't know, you'd have to ask those who

complained about AJ being quoted. It was never out right banned from DU or locked by the mods, there were just a lot of individuals here that didn't trust AJ reporting back then.
Surely you were around then, weren't you Turborama? I didn't take note of how long you've been on DU before replying, but seems I've seen your name for quite some time around these parts.