"Early on, Al Jazeera, as a critique of Israel, broadcast footage from the Israeli parliament, where Arab members of the parliament were violently criticizing the police treatment of Arabs during the uprising. Arab governments went crazy over this and said they'd shut down Al Jazeera. They didn't want citizens in Arab states to see Arabs debating in the Israeli parliament, so what looked from the Israeli point of view as an-anti Israeli show, was threatening to these governments because it was showing parliamentary debate..."
-Sam Popkin, UCSD


The Al Jazeera newsroom
Al Jazeera’s motto is “the opinion and the other opinion.” Al Jazeera's news broadcasts and talk shows allow Arabs in the Middle East to see speakers they would normally never see talking about issues that normally are not discussed. The network's reporters have different religions and political views and some are women. The news is presented from an Arab perspective, in the same way that Fox News and CNN present news from an American perspective. For example, CNN focuses on U.S. actions in Iraq and Al Jazeera focuses on the effect of the occupation on Iraqi civilians.

 

Two of the most popular programs "The Opposite Direction" and "More Than One Opinion" feature open discussions of sensitive political and social issues including women's rights, governmental reform, polygamy and the role of Islam. Western and Israeli officials and Arab opposition leaders, including former and current U.S. Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak have been interviewed on these programs.

"Al Jazeera and CNN both cover the same types of news,
but CNN covers what makes news in America,
what is important to Americans,
what America wants to see or hear.
Al Jazeera focuses on what makes news in the Arab world,
what Arabs think is important."
-Salam Hasenin, Arab American

 

Tony Blair with al-Jazeera's Sami Haddad
Talk show host Sami Haddad
interviewing British Prime Minister Tony Blair

 

To Arabs outside the region, Al Jazeera provides news from an Arab perspective and links to the language and culture of their homelands. Many Arabs in the U.S. were informed about the U.S. presidential elections by Al Jazeera’s political talk show “The American Presidential Race.”