A few months ago, an acquaintance in Israel told me that Al Jazeera in English was looking for local staff and suggested that I apply for a reporting position. When he mentioned the salary I was, I confess, tempted. It was far, far more than I could ever hope to earn working for the Israeli media.
So I ran the idea by a Palestinian friend of mine – a journalist who’s based in the West Bank.
“What do you think?” I asked. “Should I go work for Al Jazeera?””
“Sure!” he said. “Absolutely. Great idea.”
“Seriously?”
“Absolutely. Then you can kiss your career as a journalist good-bye, ’cause nobody serious will ever hire you again.”
When I read this report on Al Jazeera, I thanked the powers above that I’d listened to my friend. Incredibly, a news outlet that professes to be the CNN of the Arab world, has published a report that purports to “prove” that Israel was behind the attack on the World Trade Centre.
Yes, boys and girls, you heard it here: it was the Joos.
The most hilarious part of the article is the sources. Scroll down to the bottom and you’ll see a list of them – but they’re not direct links to original sources. Instead for each source the reader is told to google a string of words. Do that and the first hit will be another secondary source – usually a conspiracy theories site – that again quotes the supposed primary source without linking to it directly. And of course the quotes, if you can find the original source (good luck with that) are one-liners that are taken out of context.
It’s the most pathetic piece of crap I’ve seen in a looong time. Read it and weep.
March 26, 2006 at 11:13 am
I have never been clear on the distinction between the Al Jazeera magazine (aljazeera.com) and the actual English version of the Arabic news website (english.aljazeera.net). The former is full of stereotypical anti-Israel conspiracy stories, the latter is a reasonably good news site, though given from a distinct perspective.
Reading the latter in conjunction with say, Haaretz, always makes interesting reading. But the magazine website itself does appear to be under a totally different editorial control…
March 26, 2006 at 12:59 pm
It would be hilarious, if Al Jazeera wasn’t becoming a Che-Guevarra-like symbol of resistance to American imperialism among so many parts of the Western hard left.
And worse: if Western media weren’t so close behind – witness “the Mysterious Case of the Israeli Art Students” which was so seriously reported in places like Die Zeit, Salon.com and the BBC:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_art_students
We’re reliving dark times ages once again, these days, and this time around it’s the “enlightened” who are writing the Protocols of Zion.
March 26, 2006 at 2:19 pm
Oy. And may i add: vey.
Jeez louise. “Somebody he’p me! He’p me!”
Thanks for that, Lisa. I’d laugh, if i didn’t feel like crying.
March 26, 2006 at 3:24 pm
Oh Sheeyite….There goes the neighborhood! You Jews. I turn around for one minute and look what happens. Can’t you keep it under wraps?
March 26, 2006 at 10:34 pm
Good news. You can go work for Al Jazeera. This is not them:
http://www.aljazeera.com/about.asp
March 27, 2006 at 3:19 pm
I never believed any of their reports from the
day they first appeared on the screens,their
reports had the oriental overdeveloped imagination typical to the Arab nomads in the
Middle eastern deserts.
March 27, 2006 at 9:51 pm
8opus: that explains a lot! I am surprised Al Jazeera (TV) hasn’t spent money to buy this domain given how much confusion it must cause..
March 30, 2006 at 10:13 am
The report is typical muslim mind ( a narcissist ). In general Muslim have grandiose sense of self-importance and expect to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements. They are envious of others and believe that others are envious of them. They are arrogant and show haughty behaviors and attitudes. They suffer from chronic lack of confidence and are fundamentally dissatisfied, but mask this with violence and ruthless exploitative personality, victimizing often those who are most vulnerable and can’t retaliate. They subconciously and mechanically side with the islamic cause and in one way or another become sympathetic to the islamic terrorists. They rationalize and even condone the butcheries of muslim terrorists. They take the side of the muslim blindly and without investigating the facts wherver there is a conflict between muslim and others.