June 25, 2004
BBC competes Al-Jazeera
I'm quite happy to see that BBC plans to re-launch a satelite Arabic channel competing with widely popular Al-Jazeera. The British know the mid-east region better than anyone in the world and at the same time know how to affect the Arab educated audience.
But I doubt the new channel could attract less-educated Arabs of the world who actually make up the majority of them. They still going to watch Al-Jazeera which instead of spreading wisdom and giving insightful analyisi, fills Arabs hearts and minds with subtle anti-Western ideas and sentiments.
An effort to start an Arabic TV channel by the BBC had failed a few years ago.
Posted by hoder at June 25, 2004 4:36 AMComments
So Hoder thinks that the Brits at the BBC know the middle east better than its own indigenous inhabitants? the BBC is hardly fair, like most western media outlets are, in their reporting of middle eastern affairs. For us arabs, al-jazeera is a breath of fresh air, after having to get the highly selective coverage of CNN, BBC and government controlled arabic channels. It merely shows what the West does not want the arabs to see, namely the horrific nature of American foreign policy. As for Hoder, does he understand arabic well enough to make such comments on Al-Jazeera's coverage? Also, his prejudiced view that most of the arabs being uneducated shows the typical 1000-year old neurosis that some iranians (certainly not all) possess concerning arabs. get over it!
- By: Abu Rishe on June 26, 2004
- By: Abu Rishe on June 26, 2004
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It'll be interesting to see how this new channel pans out.
- By: Zach on June 25, 2004
- By: Zach on June 25, 2004
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The interesting thing is that, after the BBC's Saudi partners pulled the plug on its Arabic television station (for committing the grave sin of criticising the Saudi government), Al-Jazeera hired a lot of people from the BBC's Arabic channel.
- By: David on June 25, 2004
- By: David on June 25, 2004
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