dagblog - Comments for "Al Jazeera"

The guy is right on

jollyroger — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 22:46:56 +0000

In reply to It gets even better, I missed

The guy is right on message..the clumsy riposte would be "more viewers?" (which, after all, is a good thing...)

It gets even better, I missed

artappraiser — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 22:40:51 +0000

In reply to called in to tell you about

It gets even better, I missed the part from 2 minutes before. He's quite the slick one:

12:09am: Libyan deputy foreign minister denies any massacres have occurred in Benghazi or anywhere else in the country. He then blames Al Jazeera for "inciting strife".
What do you gain from your coverage? More employees?

not capable of playing kewl

jollyroger — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 22:40:00 +0000

In reply to Ok, I am sorry I am not

not capable of playing kewl kid

Well la-di-fuckin'-da...you'll always be a kewl kid to me, artie.

called in to tell you about

jollyroger — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 22:37:24 +0000

In reply to Ok, I am sorry I am not

called in to tell you about your dismal coverage

Ya gotta love a guy who's quick on his feet with a comeback.

Ok, I am sorry I am not

artappraiser — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 22:35:32 +0000

In reply to No no no.I thought you were

Ok, I am sorry I am not capable of playing kewl kid on the NPR speak.

BTW the point on Al Jazeera's power is amplified in a quite ironic and black humor fashion, in the following which I just ran across on their Libya Live Blog:

12:11am:

Al Jazeera Arabic presenter tries to corner Khaled al-Gaeim, deputy foreign minister, to allow the network into the country to report on events there.

If you don't trust our coverage, why are you on air with us now?

Deputy FM:

I called in to tell you about your dismal coverage, and to say that you do not own the airwaves.

No no no.I thought you were

jollyroger — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 21:58:23 +0000

In reply to I don't understand your

No no no.

I thought you were better versed in the arcana of on the media. It's an ongoing joke between Bob Garfield and BrookGladstone...Hence, the portentous pause he always inserts at the end of the show when he says it. He once explained that they have some history around it from when he first came aboard the program, and she made it plain that editing was her prerogative, and no one elses, and he's been ribbing her about it on a weekly basis ever since.

All I meant by my comment was to signal that it was the on the media first ever live broadcast that you were referencing. Sorry for lack of precision.

I don't understand your

artappraiser — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 21:49:45 +0000

In reply to a panel discussion And I bet

I don't understand your comment it was this:

"On the Media" from NPR

The Personal Impact of the Web

February 18, 2011

This week On the Media brings you a version of our first ever live show - a look at the internet and how it's changing us. First up, what is the net doing to as individuals? Does it make us better and more connected to each other? Or does it degrade our real life social connections and leave us at the mercy of long distance bullies? Bob and Brooke hash it out, with help from psychologist Sherry Turkle, writer Conor Friedersdorf, and net researcher Lee Rainie.

Like I said, it wasn't on the topic of Al Jazeera. And like I implied, I don't recommend it if you've read on the topic, it was quite general and basic, that's why I didn't bother to look it up.

But if you are implying it was edited for a political point or was pushing some agenda, actually, far from it, it was quite messy, they bouced all over the place, it was, you know, a discussion.

a panel discussion And I bet

jollyroger — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 21:33:16 +0000

In reply to I listened to a panel

a panel discussion

And I bet it was "...edited...............by Brook."

I listened to a panel

artappraiser — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 21:20:27 +0000

In reply to Al Jazeera

I listened to a panel discussion on new technology yesterday on NPR. It was big picture, i.e., the stuff about neurological and mental and sociological effects of internet, google, twitter, facebook, the human future, the sci-fi predictions--the participants were those who have written on such or at least their ideas, you know the drill. All the stuff you've heard already if you've read on it.

But when they got into the Tunisia/Egypt topic, I thought a really good point was made. That the whole twitter/facebook thing was not empowering by itself, it still needed Al Jazeera's big power network to happen. That Al Jazeera can not have correspondents in every little town like Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia waiting for something newsworthy to happen, nor can they be checking every Facebook page in the Arab world. But when they pick out something going viral on the internet and put reporting resources on it, that is when the shit really hits the fan. The point was that the real power to affect change is still in the hands of big professional media organizations, that in that things hadn't really been changed as much by twitter/facebook type tools as some people like to claim, that it's basically just faster than having a "news tips" line or a lot of stringers.