l****z
发帖数: 29846 | 1 Goodbye to Al Jazeera America
Americans weren't too impressed.
January 15, 2016
Hugh Fitzgerald
Perhaps you, too, have been feeling a bit forlorn lately. After all, the
news that greets you every day goes something like this: an attack, or two,
using bombs or guns or machetes or knives, by Muslims, somewhere in the
world, from Jakarta to Mumbai to Paris to San Bernardino, with lots of stops
in between, and the killers, if they say anything at all, explain that they
are dutifully following the dictates of Islam, as found in Qur’an and
Hadith and Sira, and then, of course, there follows a mind-dizzying display
of official denials, all over the Western world, denials that any of these
many attacks by Muslims, that any of that allahu-akbaring and citing of
Islamic texts could possibly have anything to do with Islam. But you’ve
read, and studied, and correctly concluded otherwise — sufficient unto the
day is the Muslim evil thereof — and so upon you a kind of despair descends.
Now comes news of something that I think will cheer you up. Al Jazeera has
just announced that it will shut down entirely its American operation — Al
Jazeera America — in April. You’ve heard about Al Jazeera America when it
bought out the cable channel Current TV, and took over its American
subscribers. One of the owners of Current TV was that famous
environmentalist Al Gore, who stood to make $100 million from the sale. He
claimed that the sale was a Good Thing, that far from being a propaganda
organ of the waddling emir of little Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Al
Jazeera America “gave voice to those who are not typically heard,” and
what’s more, “spoke truth to power.” He continued to praise Al Jazeera
for quite some time, as a “really distinguished and effective news
organization” in 2012, but by 2014, he didn’t quite see the station the
same way, and he was now suing Al Jazeera for being “underhanded” and
guilty of fraud, because, you see, Al Jazeera didn’t pay Al Gore all that
Al Gore thought he had coming to him.
Apparently the American public did not agree that Al Jazeera was a “
distinguished” and “effective” news channel that “spoke truth to power,
” and Al Jazeera continuously lost money and audience. News reports about
AJAM did not inspire confidence. The latest is a lawsuit by Shannon High-
Basalik, AJAM’s former senior vice-president of programming and
documentaries, who said that she “witnessed the channel abandon ‘
journalistic integrity’ in order to ‘advance a pro-Arabic/Middle Eastern
agenda often at the expense of Jewish people.'” She further charged that “
AJAM management invoked the conspiracy theory that the 9/11 terror attack
was a CIA plot,” and in her suit detailed “what she said were blatantly
discriminatory practices against women and non-Arab employees.”
And the lawsuits, and the firings, continue apace. From Wikipedia: “On
April 28, 2015, Matthew Luke, Al Jazeera America’s former Supervisor of
Media and Archive Management, filed a US$15 million lawsuit against his
former employers over unfair dismissal. Luke alleged that he had been
unfairly dismissed by the network after he had raised concerns with the
human resource division that his boss, Osman Mahmud, the Senior Vice-
President of Broadcast Operations and Technology, discriminated against
female employees and made anti-Semitic remarks…. In an unrelated
development, two female Al Jazeera America employees—Diana Lee, the
Executive Vice-President for Human Resources, and Dawn Bridges, the
Executive Vice President for Communications, had resigned that week.” Just
google “Al Jazeera and lawsuits” for much more.
Perhaps this every-which-way degringolade at Al Jazeera America will put you
in mind of BridgesTV, the other Muslim television channel that was aimed at
an American audience. It was founded in 2004 by a Pakistani-American,
Muzzamil S. Hassan. His wife Aasiya had urged him to develop “an American
Muslim media where her kids could grow up feeling really strong about their
identity as an American Muslim.” BridgesTV, according to an early press
release, “gives American Muslims a voice and will depict them in everyday,
real life situations…..Every day on television we are barraged by stories
of a ‘Muslim extremist, militant, terrorist, or insurgent.’ …But the
stories that are missing are the countless stories of Muslim tolerance,
progress, diversity, service and excellence that Bridges TV hopes to tell.”
Those were the heady days of 2004; by February 2009, Muzzammil S. Hassan
had decided that Aasiya just wouldn’t do, and he decapitated her right at
the station while their two small children, strapped into their car seats,
waited outside. BridgesTV shut for three months, then reopened and limped
along for a while without its founder and CEO, but finally shut down for
good in 2012.
Nothing quite so dramatic explains the demise of Al Jazeera America. Not Al
Gore’s claims of its being “underhanded” and a “fraud,” not Shannon
High-Bassalik’s claims that the station’s management “advances a pro-
Arabic/Middle Eastern agenda often at the expense of Jewish people” and “
invoked the conspiracy theory that the 9/11 terror attack was a CIA plot”
and employed “blatantly discriminatory practices against women and non-Arab
employees.”
Possibly the explanation for AJAM’s closure is to be found not in the
failure of the station to attract much of anything except lawsuits, but in
the colossal drop in the price of oil, and a slightly-less-colossal drop in
the price of natural gas. Even rich little Qatar is affected. Whatever the
reason for AJAM’s closing now, the news of that closing is something that I
think — as I wrote in the second paragraph above — will cheer you, as it
did me, up. God knows we all deserve it.
Tags: Al Gore, Al Jazeera America, Left
Share | r**********f
发帖数: 2808 | 2 两个穆斯林电视台都关门。说明穆斯林文化和西方文化格格不入。
What happened to Bridges TV is unbelievable. It was founded in 2004 by a
Pakistani-American,Muzzamil S. Hassan. His wife Aasiya had urged him to
develop “an American Muslim media where her kids could grow up feeling
really strong about their identity as an American Muslim.”... By February
2009, Muzzammil S. Hassan had decided that Aasiya just wouldn’t do, and he
decapitated her right at the station while their two small children,
strapped into their car seats, waited outside.
创办人应妻子的对孩子加强穆斯林文化教育的要求，开办电视台。最后在电视台将妻子
斩首。 | t***h
发帖数: 2924 | 3 这个女人活该。
he
【在 r**********f 的大作中提到】
: 两个穆斯林电视台都关门。说明穆斯林文化和西方文化格格不入。
: What happened to Bridges TV is unbelievable. It was founded in 2004 by a
: Pakistani-American,Muzzamil S. Hassan. His wife Aasiya had urged him to
: develop “an American Muslim media where her kids could grow up feeling
: really strong about their identity as an American Muslim.”... By February
: 2009, Muzzammil S. Hassan had decided that Aasiya just wouldn’t do, and he
: decapitated her right at the station while their two small children,
: strapped into their car seats, waited outside.
: 创办人应妻子的对孩子加强穆斯林文化教育的要求，开办电视台。最后在电视台将妻子
: 斩首。
| a*********a
发帖数: 3656 | 4 戈尔前负统是这一串交易里的最大赢家。
,
stops
they
【在 l****z 的大作中提到】
: Goodbye to Al Jazeera America
: Americans weren't too impressed.
: January 15, 2016
: Hugh Fitzgerald
: Perhaps you, too, have been feeling a bit forlorn lately. After all, the
: news that greets you every day goes something like this: an attack, or two,
: using bombs or guns or machetes or knives, by Muslims, somewhere in the
: world, from Jakarta to Mumbai to Paris to San Bernardino, with lots of stops
: in between, and the killers, if they say anything at all, explain that they
: are dutifully following the dictates of Islam, as found in Qur’an and
| E*********o
发帖数: 5965 | 5 Gore is such a bitch
【在 a*********a 的大作中提到】
: 戈尔前负统是这一串交易里的最大赢家。
:
: ,
: stops
: they
| b**********s
发帖数: 9531 | |
|
