Living and working in the Washington D.C. area I took it for granted that Al Jazeera was available to most people in the United States via their Cable TV provider.
It came as quite a shock to me when I learned that this was not the case. It turns out that the Washington D.C. area is part of just a hand-full places where Al Jazeera is part of my Cable TV package.
The unfortunate truth is that Al Jazeera, which has recently received praise for it’s unparalleled coverage of the Egyptian anti-government protests, still carries an undeserved label of "Propaganda machine” for different “Islamic extremist” groups.
As has been stated by many American and British journalists, Al Jazeera is really the authoritative source for news and information regarding the protests in Egypt.
Al Jazeera is being praised by many for their unparalleled coverage of the events in Egypt. These same journalists are quick to point out that the Arabic news channel has been providing authoritative news coverage on all major international world events for a number of years now, it’s just that more people noticed Al Jazeera’s fantastic news coverage recently when the Egyptian anti-Mubarak protests began.
It’s important that the American public be made aware of just how valuable Al Jazeera can be to them. The reason for the importance of Al Jazeera being made available is that the more honest sources of information from diverse points of view, the better our ability to effectively analyze world events in an effort to form a more informed opinion.
Many journalists from the BBC went on record in saying that Al Jazeera is on par with the BBC itself as well as the “big 3” American cable news channels.
The Huffington Post has a piece about Al Jazeera and the reluctance of American Cable providers to carry the Arabic News Channel.
To get your Cable TV provider to start carrying Al Jazeera your first step, obviously, is to contact the provider and request they start carrying Al Jazeera. You may also wish to check if your providers website has a “suggest a channel we should carry” (or something along those lines) button and use it.
Finally, if you should wish to influence American Cable carriers even more and also help your fellow American news junkies, then I urge you to go to “Demand Al Jazeera English” and put a link/button on your website or blog.
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