Salon: Al Jazeera English's Egypt coverage embarrasses U.S. cable news channels [View All]

There is a curfew in effect in Egypt, but thousands of protesters remain in the streets in Cairo, Suez, Alexandria, and across the rest of the country. President Hosni Mubarek is expected to speak soon. Police might've fired teargas at praying demonstrators. And Fox reported on how ICE arrested some immigrant sex offenders in Virginia.

Fox, CNN, and MSNBC are all acquitting themselves better than they did the day Tunisia's government collapsed. All of them have reporters in Cairo, and are airing footage of the demonstrations on the streets. But none of them are reporting on the situation as compellingly as Al Jazeera English, which has reporters across the country. And if you're in the United States, http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/">you can probably only see Al Jazeera English online. If you're watching Al Jazeera, you're seeing uninterrupted live video of the demonstrations, along with reporting from people actually on the scene, and not "analysis" from people in a studio. The cops were threatening to knock down the door of one of their reporters minutes ago. Fox has moved on to anchor babies. CNN reports that the ruling party building is on fire, but Al Jazeera is showing the fire live.

CNN, to their credit, is using coverage from the grownups at CNN International. MSNBC had Dan Senor (council on foreign relations) reporting from Davos. Yes, liberal MSNBC was getting live analysis from a neoconservative former spokesperson for the occupying US government in Iraq. Fox just had former UN Ambassador and ultra-hawk John Bolton on to warn us about the Muslim Brotherhood. Al Jazeera had an opposition party leader on the phone.



From: http://www.salon.com/news/media_criticism/?story=/politics/war_room/2011/01/28/cable_news_egypt

Edited to rub salt into US cable's wound and add this link to AJE's excellent live blog: http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/01/28/liveblog-egypts-protests-erupt

I also just felt the overwhelming urge to post this again: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=6848728">Bushco Bombed 2 Foreign Offices of an Ally's TV News Channel & Planned to Bomb its Head Office!