Al-Jazeera International: coming to a TV near you

By Monica Mehta
Posted on August 11, 2005, Printed on December 1, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers//24024/

Looks like another veteran journalist is signing up with al-Jazeera. This time it's British broadcasting bigwig David Frost. The station is hiring media types from the U.S. and the U.K. for the launch of of its global channel, al-Jazeera International, next year.

It will be a good thing for Westerners to be able to see what al-Jazeera broadcasts, since it's often from an Arab-insider view (though execs insist, ""We have no domestic agenda and no political bias. Our coverage will be fearless, provocative, and the most informed on what's happening on the ground in the world's hot spots"). A news channel that often gains access to sites of recent attacks within wartorn areas could provide the footage Western networks can't get, and can't broadcast even if they did.

Maybe if Tom, Dick and Harry saw the actual bodies of Iraqi civilians killed in an attack, they might start realizing this isn't what liberation should look like. Heck, they might start even seeing "those people" as human. Let's hope the global al-Jazeera lives up to its promise.

Monica Mehta is an associate editor at AlterNet.

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