Al Jazeera America

Al Jazeera America's broadcast studio in New York City.

Two competing views are found at Real Clear Politics regarding the value of the new 24/7 news channel, Al Jazeera America (AJAM), whose parent company is headquartered in Qatar.The Guardian's  Ana Marie Cox thinks it's the news channel America deserves, and she means that in a way that's complimentary to Americans: 

...It looks and feels, for the most part, like the kind of cable news you're used to watching – but if you linger on the channel for any length of time, you'll notice something: the topic hasn't changed since you touched the remote. Stick around a little longer and you'll see the filmed segment you just saw followed up by an interview with an expert on the topic, who delves deeper into the topic – and maybe criticizes the report. (This happened with a segment on new cancer treatments with the hyperbolic headline – in an echo of typical cable coverage – "Cancer Cure?" A scientist, who spoke using scientific terms, talked about how the treatment was tantalizing, but then he downplayed the whole "cure" angle, as he should.)

...The network's flagship news program, "America Tonight" [not their "Nightly News"], opted to cover a mere five stories: the Egyptian protests and government crack-down as filmed mostly via cellphone by an on-the-scene reporter. The miserable conditions in the Orleans Parish Prison. The cholera epidemic in Haiti. The aforementioned experimental cancer treatment. And, the "softest" story of the bunch, a rare moment of optimism in Detroit, where an entrepreneurial young woman has parlayed a design-class project into a small factory employing the formerly homeless to make coats for the homeless.

 None of these stories is that remarkable in and of itself – the Egyptian footage was an amazing "get", but contained no scoops; tarted up a bit and trimmed, they'd be at home on any channel. What's revolutionary about the show is what wasn't in it: no mention of "Obamacare" (indeed, I'm not sure there was a mention of Obama, specifically). No mention of rodeo clowns, or Ted Cruz's birth certificate, or Hillary. Nothing about gun control or Trayvon Martin, either. Nor voting rights, gay rights and the Olympics, nor the Tea Party.

For anyone who's ever despaired of the set of Wolf Blitzer's nightly two-hour CNN extravaganza, replete with 10-foot monitors and drive-by interviews that go so fast that guests stand at a desk rather than sit, Cox's take does make AJAM sound calm and reflective. 

Compare Cox's review to National Review Online's Christopher Harper, which twice invokes former Soviet news practices of making America look bad through the highlighting of racial and economic inequality:

Al Jazeera launched its much-balleyhooed channel Tuesday, providing a mix of unoriginal stories, uninspired reporting, and anti-American bias. Despite the earlier stories in nearly every major new outlet in which AJAM promised a different approach to the news, its debut, simply put, was dreadful. America Tonight the prime-time magazine show anchored by Joie Chen...[had as its] opening story...the events in Egypt. Much of the story featured the reporter in the back seat of an automobile telling the audience how dangerous it was. I served ABC News bureau chief in Cairo starting in 1980 and spent nearly a decade covering terrorism and wars for ABC and Newsweek. Of course it's dangerous! Three journalists and more than 1,000 other people died in Egypt during the past week. Journalists need to talk about the story, not their safety.

Then AJAM turned again to prisons [after covering the force-feeding of 130 California inmates in their "Nightly News"] — that familiar theme to show how bad America really is. This story focused on the conditions at Orleans Parish Prison in New Orleans and provided exclusive footage of the problems there. A few pertinent facts were downplayed, however. For example, the city and the parish have agreed to a multimillion-dollar building project to make the prison better equipped and more secure. But AJAM didn’t let that fact get in the way of a good story.

But maybe the news isn’t what AJAM is really about. Qatar, which provides much of the funding for the cable channel, has deeper pockets than Jeff Bezos, who recently bought the Washington Post for $250 million. Simply put, I don’t think the channel is about making money in an already-crowded 24/7 cable milieu. AJAM provides the government of Qatar, which has said it will not be involved in the editorial product, a seat at the political table in the United States. One of the richest countries in the world, Qatar provides aid to the Syrian rebels and has reportedly paid al-Qaeda to stay away from Qatari territory. Qataris practice Wahhabi Islam, the same conservative style as Saudi Arabia. The government has been accused of promoting anti-American sentiment through the Arabic channel of Al Jazeera and has backed the Palestinians against Israel as an official policy.

Where does this leave us? Via an article Michael Haz recently posted, there was a fascinating report on the Islamic Society of North America, by the controversial Investigative Project headed by Steven Emerson. It's an enlightening read covering the strategies of the Muslim Brotherhood to infiltrate North America. The introduction:

ISNA, the Islamic Society of North America, is one of America’s most prominent and active Muslim organizations. While it enjoys a generally positive public image from its religious endeavors and huge annual conference, ISNA’s extremist origins and continuing ideological support for radicalism make it an inappropriate partner for government outreach. As the information detailed in this report will show, ISNA’s ideology has been rooted in radicalism since its foundation. 

Among the findings: 

• ISNA remains an unindicted co-conspirator in the Hamas-support  prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF),  despite its appeals to the court to remove that status. 

 • ISNA was created by members of the Muslim Brotherhood – a radical Egyptian  movement that seeks to spread Shariah law globally – in the U.S. Many of those founders remain in leadership positions with ISNA. 

• It invites controversial speakers to its nationwide conferences, including  some of the world famous Islamists and advocates of Jihad.  

• Speakers at ISNA conferences make radical statements, often in  contradiction of ISNA’s cultivated public image.

From the conclusion:

ISNA’s benign message is severely challenged by the presence of old-guard founderswith ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and its close ties to other radical groups.The fact that ISNA calls its 2009 conference its 46th event further shows the continuitybetween it and the Muslim Brotherhood-founded Muslim Students Association. As statedearlier, ISNA was created in 1981 – or 28 years ago. But it includes previous MSAconferences in the 46-year tally. The April 1986 issue of ISNA’s magazine, IslamicHorizons, demonstrates this.90 It also shows that past MSA presidents remain active inISNA and its affiliated organizations...

Having mentioned this we should recall that the home base of Al Jazeera is Qatar, a country against the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic Caliphate they espouse. Its secular government wants to hobnob with its Sunni neighbors and the big players on the world stage. This is anathema to the Brotherhood and their desire that countries be governed by Sharia law. How shall we thread this needle?