Al Gore
Al Jazeera

Al Gore has always been a rather shallow demagogue. It was almost inevitable that after sitting side by side in the political opportunists dictionary, they would rub off on each the other.

I don’t want to become a defender of Al Jazeera. An American reporter quit a couple of years back complaining of anti-American sentiment, so maybe it’s there among the staff. I can only testify to what I know from first-hand experience reading and watching AJ: It’s just another news organization, not some kind of “terrorist network”. I calls ‘em as I sees ‘em.

Unless there is a conspiracy of all news sources in this country to withhold news of Muslim murder, I hardly think it is out of control.

Ridiculous!

As long as there are multiple sources of news, lies tend to become obvious to the unindoctrinated. Drama plays on our emotions and can leave us affected regardless of truth.

It would be stupid for AJ to color the news. They need to be as even handed as possible if they want to have a shot at subtlely affecting our opinion over the long term.

With dramatic presentation, a la, little Juan wants to know will you be his sponsor, or the SPCA starving puppies, they can appeal to us emotionally. As far as I know there is none of that on AJ at present.

Heck, I even pulled the critical paragraph into its own comment below, just in case somebody missed it.

The English version is undoubtedly tailored to Western sensibilities. The core Arabic version is at aljazeera.net, and of course I can’t read it, but there do seem to be a lot more pictures of angry Arabs brandishing weapons. Who knows what’s the “real” Al-Jazeera? Maybe both, if you heed Occam’s Razor: Follow the money. It’s branding.

Pre-war and before the Nazi movement began serious ethnic cleansing, Berlin was neck and neck with Hollywood as the world capital of film making.

Goebbels wanted to use popular films as propaganda and “Titanic” was a major effort to this end. The documentary covers propaganda in general and some of the major German failures and successes.

My carrier DISH includes the Current channel as part of basic and I doubt they will drop it.

It will be interesting to watch the AJ channel to see how the slant things. I consider myself to be far too cynical to be vulnerable to any propaganda. It is painfully obvious to me from all sides.

Al Gore sells his failing station to a Arabic news organization, owned and controlled by the royal family of Qatar, then walks off with a hundred million dollars in carbon-spewing oil money while trying like hell to avoid paying higher taxes on it.

I’ll admit, that is a little long for a bumper sticker.