Earlier today a report in the Washington Post (which I have not been able to find) claimed that the U.S. has been mobilizing $4 billion dollars worth of military equipment from Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman to the Jordanian-Syrian border. Al-Jazeera was the first to report this of course.
Less than a week ago when Amman was attacked the Israeli paper Haaretz reported that Jordanian security forces removed Israelies from the hotels moments before the bombings, only to come back and say there was no truth to their story. AlJazeera was the first to report this of course, but it stuck with it.
According to Jordan papers today, Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Murwan AlMuashar has denied these claims saying the washington post writer is a coloumnist and not a reporter, basing his article on opinion rather than fact. To his dissapointment, he said, some Arab channels seem to be reporting false news about Jordan without conducting any type of fact checking, especially Al Jazeera. Adding he wishes these channels check their facts first before reporting news based on lies. [source]
Finally, someone officially says something! I knew I liked this guy for a reason.
Also, this seems to be a growing trend with AlJazeera. I’ve also noticed they never seem to use Haaretz or any Israeli paper as an actual source unless that news is about Jordan. So I don’t know what’s worse, the Israeli propaganda machine or the AlJazeera one?
Al Rai newspaper has an interesting op-ed on the matter, it is worth a read as it brings up one of the most obvious questions: “who can believe this (story) and is it possible to hide such a large quantity of equipment on a border that is tight, well known and visible….” A retraction is in order! Anyways, this is what I as a Jordanian call Irresponsible Journalism.
So a bunch of tiny fish are swimming through the leaves of the plant but then one of the fish realizes it’s not a plant, it’s the tentacles of a predator. And the fish says, “with friends like this, who needs anemones?” (a bit of “the new yorker” dry humor for yah)
Nas,
here is the washington post article http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2005/11/keeping_secrets.html
Natasha, thanks!!
I totally agree. Even Al-Jazeera’s coverage of the Amman bombings was questionable:
1- Out of 60 people killed, Al-Jazeera chose to put the one picture that had 3 chinese men dead on its newsitem page! (as if confirming that alwaeda targetted foreigners)
2- They were very quick to publish a second news article with title “Qaeda targeted hotels with CIA activity in them”. Again, as if supporting AlQaeda’s claims
3- Their analysis on why these bombings were wrong (signed by “anonymous jordanian writer”), sounded like a friend’s advice to AlQaeda rather than critisism.
I like Al-Jazeera’s inquisitive reporting and investigations, but… on AlQaeda & Jordan specifically, they seem to carry certain opinions a bit too strongly for a news agency.
it’ll be interesting to see another news agency competing with aljazeera. Al-3arabiya is still rather shallow (just check their “stock market report” broadcast!)
thanks ya Black Iris
You might be interested in this op-ed written by Amir Taheri, in Asharq Alawsat, which I blogged at Crossroads Arabia. He doesn’t think a whole lot of Al-Jazeera, except that it’s harming Arabs.