
Our national consciousness was perhaps first introduced to Al Jazeera following the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001 and during the Iraq War.
For quite some time, America’s major news outlets’ coverage of the Qatar-based news channel was mostly negative and even fearful.
Initial controversy surrounding Al Jazeera revolved around its broadcasting of messages from the infamously evasive Osama bin Laden.
Former President George Bush famously named Al Jazeera a “terrorist organization,” as did former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Jehane Noujaim offered a new perspective of the network in 2004, however, with his documentary, “Control Room.” The film depicted Al Jazeera reporters and producers working and reporting in the Middle East who defended their choices to broadcast controversial messages and often disturbing footage.
The main argument regarded the newsworthiness and pertinence of those messages, particularly for viewers living in countries facing the reactive threat of occupation and war from the American government.
Al Jazeera’s standards of newsgathering perhaps set it apart the most from many other news organizations, particularly in the West. If the news relates to the people, Al Jazeera airs it, whether it happens to be messages from the Taliban, or images of mutilated children killed in war-torn territories.
This certainly conflicts with American standards of newsgathering. It is perhaps a disparity in ethics, as we would never see maimed US soldiers on CNN, for example.
Launched in 2006, Al Jazeera English (AJE) broadcasts to an impressive 220 million households in over 100 countries. And with more than 1,000 staff members from more than 50 nationalities, the AJE’s newsroom is uncommonly diverse.
This is perhaps AJE’s main selling point: the diversity in news coverage. Some find the appeal of Al Jazeera English in its coverage of issues which actually pertain to them, those issues which are ignored or neglected by mainstream media.
One quick glance at the AJE website and you’ll see articles about Palestinians, Kenyans, Turks, Rwandans, and Afghans.
AJE’s coverage of diverse global issues is absolutely unparalleled. Arguably no other news organization- at least in the United States- comes minutely close to that kind of coverage.
Indeed, the organization seems committed to presenting diverse perspectives in news. Number six of the organization’s Code of Ethics reads,
“Recognise diversity in human societies with all their races, cultures and beliefs and their values and intrinsic individualities so as to present unbiased and faithful reflection of them.”
Without a doubt, this is also Al Jazeera’s main strength.
Reporters who speak the languages of the people they cover in countries like Iraq or Afghanistan certainly have an edge over more foreign reporters who are less familiar with the languages, customs, and diverse cultures of the perspectives of the citizens they attempt to represent.
Of course, the 65 bureaus across the globe don’t hurt the news organization, either.
We might even consider the relatively young news organization the “CNN of a later generation,” as its coverage of the Iraq War of the 2000s arguably surpasses CNN’s legendary coverage of the Gulf War in the early 1990s.
Al Jazeera is certainly due praise for its unsurpassed coverage of the more current revolutions in the Middle East.
Al Jazeera is not, however, without its due criticism. A deeper read of many of the articles posted on Al Jazeera English prove that the organization often favors one perspective, often with regard to the Palestine-Israel conflict.
This does nothing to enhance the organization’s proposed adherence to the journalistic values of fairness and balance promised in its Code of Ethics.
So perhaps Al Jazeera is instead the “Fox News of the East.” Whatever you want to call it, it cannot be denied that Al Jazeera is a powerful force in news. Only time will tell whether it stays that way.

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