"Eldar points out that when America went to war in Iraq, coverage in the early stages was heavily slanted in favor of U.S. interests. The average Israeli views Al Jazeera as an American might view Fox News Channel, he says. "They both are highly partisan, and everybody knows it."
Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab, who is bilingual, watches both the English and the Arabic channels of Al Jazeera. He sees powerful distinctions in news content and style.
"The English version is mellow and quieter in tone, in his view, with a more tempered approach to its reporting. Newscasts on the Arabic channel tend to be louder, with a more "hostile" feel. "They keep you on the edge, its reporters are pushing issues rather just reporting on them. They become more of an activist at times, very in your face. The English channel uses more neutral terminology; the Arab channel is much harsher," says Kuttab, who won the Committee to Protect Journalists Press Freedom award in 1996 for challenging censorship by the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority.
The majority of complaints about anti-Semitism predictably are drawn by material on the Arabic channel. A weekly show "Sharia and Life," hosted by controversial Egyptian cleric Yusuf Qaradawi, infuriates its many critics."
Qaradawi's writings and concluded he "argues clearly and consistently that hatred of Israel and Jews is Islamically sanctioned, and that the destruction of Israel is mandated by God." To Judea Pearl, Qaradawi's messages are clear. "They give religious license to the ideology of terror," he says.
Al Jazeera editors counter that the Arabic channel also features Muhammed Heikal, a leading writer and intellectual in the Arab world who served as an adviser to Egyptian presidents Anwar Sadat and Gamal Abdel Nasser, known for their moderate policies.
SO they have an example of someone who argues that the destruction of Israel is mandated by god, and another more "moderate" speaker is their defense.
Middle East expert Lynch said during a March 22 interview on National Public Radio that being funded by the emir "can't help but affect their coverage." He added, "People feel there has been increasing use of Al Jazeera as a weapon in Qatari foreign policy in recent years compared to the past. It's very rare to see Al Jazeera critically covering something the Qatari regime supports."
Another example of going out on a limb: On June 25, 2009, the English-language channel ran a story on religion in the U.S. military, noting that "many Christians on the right describe the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in similar terms as the Taliban and al Qaeda¯as spiritual wars of the highest magnitude. Fundamentalists on both sides feed the fires of hatred and racism to support their world views."
The Taliban and al Qaeda have used murder, torture and terror to achieve their goals, which the video neglected to mention in its comparison to Christians on the right.
an on-air birthday party organized by Al Jazeera's Beirut bureau chief for a Lebanese militant convicted of killing four Israelis, including a four-year-old girl. Al Jazeera greeted Samir Kuntar, released in a July 2008 prisoner swap, as a hero. Fox News Channel's Britt Hume reported at the time, "As Kuntar cut into his cake, the network set off fireworks."
http://www.setyoufreenews.com/2012/03/12/al-jazeera-journali sts-quit-channel-citing-bias-on-syria-coverage/
http://rt.com/news/al-jazeera-rebels-phones-lebanon-281/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/al-jazeera-from-media-power-to-
laughing-stock/30159
In addition to this, Al Jazeera exercised double standards, by providing a heavily biased and incomplete coverage of the protest movements in both Saudi Arabia and Bahrain which resulted in countless civilian deaths. How can a news organization boast of having excellent coverage, especially for a specific region, if they refuse to report important happenings?
Al Jazeera slipped further when the Syrian government gained a hold of a video that showed an Al Jazeera reporter before he was on air âEUoeand the demeanor is drastically different from the demeanor on the air and they even show contrived sounds of explosions timed for broadcast timeâEU and the âEUoestaging of events of calling a civilian an âEU~officerâEUTM in the Syrian army, of faking injuries and feeding statements to people before airtime, etc.âEU
Yet, the most damning evidence was the revelation that âEUoeAhmad Ibrahim, who is in charge of the channelâEUTMs Syria coverage, is the brother of Anas al-Abdeh, a leading member of the opposition Syrian National Council.âEU
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/09/05/spain.alqaeda/
MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Police have arrested a correspondent for Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV at his home in southern Spain accusing him of having links to the al Qaeda terrorist group.
He is later convicted
A Spanish court has sentenced al Jazeera correspondent Taysir Allouni to 7 years in prison after convicting him of collaborating with al Qaeda. Allouni was convicted along with 17 other men. Among them, a man identified by prosecutors as the leading al Qaeda figure in the country, Syrian Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, also known as Abu Dahdah. He was accused of organizing a meeting in northern Spain in July 2001 in which final preparations for the September 11 attacks are alleged to have been made. According to the prosecution, the meeting was attended by alleged 9-11 hijacker Mohamed Atta.
The prosecutions were brought by the famed Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, famous for his indictment of Augusto Pinochet. He has been criticized widely by human rights groups for these current prosecutions, saying they are based on political motives rather than actual guilt. As for al JazeeraâEUTMs Allouni, the network says it is appealing his sentence. Allouni gained fame by broadcasting the first interview with Osama bin Laden, from Afghanistan, after September 11. Allouni has lived and worked in Spain for many years. His boss, Al Jazeera news editor Ahmed Sheikh, told his station that the conviction marked "a black day for Spanish justice."
