Royal family member put in charge at Al Jazeera

[JCMach1]

Source: The National

he appointment of a member of Qatar's royal family as the head of Al Jazeera will bring the influential satellite network's coverage more in line with government policy, analysts said yesterday.

Sheikh Ahmad bin Jasem bin Muhammad Al Thani, an executive at Qatargas, was set to replace Wadah Khanfar, the Palestinian-born journalist who had been at the helm of the broadcaster for eight years.

Speculation has grown that Khanfar resigned as director general because a document published by the anti-secrecy organisation WikiLeaks said he was influenced by Washington to alter the network's coverage of the Iraq war.

Khanfar, who announced his resignation on Tuesday, yesterday denied he had ever bowed to editorial pressure from the United States or any other government. There have been numerous - and often contradictory - political attacks against Al Jazeera since its founding in 1996. The network's Arabic channel has been called a "mouthpiece for bin Laden" because of its perceived anti-American bias; it has also been accused of being a front for Mossad, the CIA and Saddam Hussein.

Sheikh Ahmad's appointment was likely to lead to a "repositioning" of Al Jazeera's coverage, said the media commentator Ali Jaber, speaking in his capacity as dean of the Mohammed bin Rashid School for Communication at the American University of Dubai...

Read more: http://www.thenational.ae/news/worldwide/middle-east/royal-family-member-put-in-charge-at-al-jazeera

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Looks like Al Jazeera is about to jump the shark. They 'were' the most liberal/left-leaning network.

[MADem]

1. Well, that's a shame. There always was a shadow over them--now the

shadow is being cast by an elephant in the room.

[No Elephants]

6. Thing is, so few knew about the shadow Now, it's obvious.. I think that is better.

To name just one thing, I've seen DU praise Al Jazeera's reporting as far superior to any in the bought and paid for US media.

Turns out, Al Jazeera was bought and paid for, too.

With a member of the royal family running it, that is much more obvious than it may have been before.

[MADem]

11. Your point is entirely valid. I always knew upon which side their bread was buttered, though.

I suppose it's fashionable for some to like things that are exotic and seemingly different, that cover stories that aren't as easy to find from the USA. It gives the feel of being an elite insider, I guess.

When you've lived near the sources, they aren't quite so exotic (or as fair on a day-to-day basis) as they are from afar. Also, if you're the type to dig a bit deeper (as you are), it's obvious where their cash flow came from.

Any time you have a media outlet working out of an autocratic nation, you've gotta figure that freedom is limited to what the boss likes. In America, it's sort of the same deal, only the boss is the big cheeses at Universal, or Disney, or GE...or, in the case of Current TV, Al Gore.

AJ had some good points and some not-so-good, as do most media outlets. Pretty much any media corporation can do at least one thing well! Faux does cleavage and red lipstick like a Miss America contest, CNN can get to an international story on the weekend, and MSNBC has the corner on chat.

That jaundiced eye comes in handy at times!

[AsahinaKimi]

2. Sad.

I guess I can erase Al Jazeera from my list of News sources, just like I did with the Huffington Post a while back..

[ananda]

4. Yeah. Bummer.

nt

[RogueBandit]

12. What is on your list?

AsahinaKimi, I'm curious what your list of news sources are. I'm always interested in new possibilities!

[AsahinaKimi]

14. Lately...

1. Japan Times
2. Mainichi Daily News
3. Asahi.com
4. News On Japan
5. Daily Yomiuri
6. Japan Today
7. SFgate.com
9. vancouversun.com/
10. World Wide Service of the BBC
11. http://www.asianewsnet.net
12. http://www.weirdasianews.com/
13. www.theglobeandmail.com/
14. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/
15. http://www.news.com.au/
16.http://english.chosun.com/
17.http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/index_en.php
18. http://www.thestandard.com.hk/
19. http://www.bangkokpost.com/
2o.http://www.thanhniennews.com/Pages/default.aspx


Just to mention a few..

[SpiralHawk]

3. Pooof

Total cred shred.

[No Elephants]

5. That is the response to finding out the head Al Jazeera was shilling for the US?

LOL!

[stockholmer]

7. Al Jazeera has long been a British MI6 propaganda machine

In typical fashion, they established themselves as a contrarian viewpoint to mainstream news , and quickly became hated by the right wing movements for supposedly being 'pro Islamic'. This allows sophisticated multi-dimensional dis-info to be put out that will be supported at first blush by certain groups, or rejected prima facie by others, thus setting up a a false paradigm dialectical battle.

[chrisa]

8. I bet this has to do with the Arab Spring

How dare they actually report the real news!

[Odin2005]

9. The PTB will tolerate no dissenting viewpoints.

[pam4water]

10. K&R Too bad.

[Warpy]

13. Since the royal family is the most progressive in the region

I doubt this will provoke much of an editorial change beyond not broadcasting negative stories about Qatar, itself, something that is already the case due to the HQ's location.

I've never found an anti American bias at Al Jazeera. I've found them capable of telling very uncomfortable truths about this country from time to time and some of those truths sting. I suppose right wingers would find that horribly biased. However, they've done an equal amount of very flattering stories about the US.

[L. Coyote]

15. What's with all the pre-judgements?

Lose the prejudices and watch what happens instead.