The New CBS?

According to the Guardian we live in a nation that suppresses dissent and freedom of speech. So what are the uninformed citizens from Clark County supposed to do? Where should they go to listen to a balanced, unbiased voice of reason?

Well if you take the Guardian's advice, citizens of Clark County should be tuning into Middle East's most trusted name in unbiased reporting and uncensored beheadings. The only source of news that brings you minute-by-minute news feeds directly from caves of Usama Bin Laden. The news outlet that has become this century's Tokyo Rose of the Persian Gulf.

You guessed it. It's none other than the critic’s choice, Al Jazeera.

The Guardian provides a warm seat and a column for Faisal Bodi, a senior editor for aljazeera.net, so that he can make his case to those repressed in the West. According to Mr. Bodi:

"Al-Jazerra tells the truth about war."

QED, Mr. Bodi.

When confronted with ironclad arguments like that, it's clear that CNN and other Western news outlets need to pack their bags and call it day.

Sarcasm aside, Mr. Bodi's article does try to make a few more points before it fizzles like a bottle of cheap champagne. Basically Bodi makes a reductionist argument, claiming that truth equates to the broadcasting of graphic images of the carnage of war, accompanied by propaganda blurbs from the likes of Bagdad Bob. You know, something like "Fahrenheit 9/11".

Well truth is an illusive thing. We in the West have had freedom of speech for centuries and are still trying to get it right. So before we climb up onto our roofs and redirect our satellite dishes exclusivley towards Mecca, perhaps we should consider the New York Post's Ralph Peter's synopsis of Mr. Bodi's organization:

"Staffed by embittered exiles and pan-Arabist ideologues — the last Nasserites — al-Jazeera is so consumed by hatred of America and the West that the network would rather see Iraq collapse into a bloodbath than permit the emergence of a democracy sponsored by Washington. Despite his slaughter of a million-and-a-half Muslims in wars and campaigns of repression, al-Jazeera cheered for Saddam during Operation Iraqi Freedom, inventing Iraqi victories. Its staff reacted with horror to the fall of Baghdad — and suppressed film clips of celebrating Arabs.

Since then, al-Jazeera has glamorized Islamic terrorists (who, were they ever to come to power, would close al-Jazeera and butcher its staff) while portraying the Baathist campaign of murder and sabotage as a noble freedom struggle.

Al-Jazeera is so bigoted and morally debased that its reporters and producers delight in Coalition casualties, in dead Iraqi doctors and engineers and (above all) in dead Kurds. Al-Jazeera not only encourages the assassination of American soldiers, but pulls out all the stops to excite anti-U.S. hatred throughout the Arabic-speaking world."

H'mmm. Come to think of it. The Guardian and Al-Jazeera are starting to make Dan Rather look pretty damn good.

[Posted by bob at The Breakdown Lane]