Lets talk news, guys

*Al Jazeera news team for the English speaking channel

Randolph College and its overbearing communications department did do me some good. My senior year, I did a massive research project on Al Jazeera vs. CNN. Lets just say that Al Jazeera won that battle.

With someone that I love with every inch of my soul in the Middle East right now (yeah, I'm getting personal and mushy, I apologize) I want a reliable encounter of what is really going on over there. Well, the US has no idea. Or they do and blow it WAY out of proportion. Through my research and own experience, I am beginning to learn that US news is more concerned with ratings by making a mountain out of a molehill while foriegn news concentrates on the hard facts.

I mean, you never see a story about Anna Nicole Smith on Al Jazeera. Honestly, who cares that an overweight playboy model who's brain was non-coherant with the real world and married a man 50-60 years her elder croaked? Sounds harsh, but really, the news of her death barely phased me. And it was the top news on the CNN website for almost a month.

Now, lets take the Iran situation. Today, it was announced that Iran is a #1 threat to the US and that "finger is on the trigger" of various missles. They make it sound like its inevitable for an attack from Iran. Well, if you read a more logical version for Al Jazeera, you realize that they are only making these threats if we attack them. Sounds logical. Every country deserves a defense of some kind. I'm not supporting Iran by no means, their president is a freakin' nutcase, but the situation is not as dier as CNN is making it out to be. I felt a little panic after reading their story, but relieved after reading Al Jazeera's. Its like if the US was attacked, of course we would strike back, or we just attack random countries when there is a sign of threat, which makes me think we will do this with Iran, and that does make me nervous.

Second, today, I read a story on Al Jazeera that has not been posted on any US website, or at least at this time that the US has top officials discussing a withdrawal of ground troops by mid-2009. BBC reports this story later in the day. Why hasn't the US done the same thing? Isn't that news we should be hearing right now? Or maybe its just too positive to gain ratings.

Now, I don't believe everything I hear, but I will trust these foriegn sites more than the national sites, due to the common fact that they are closer to the situation, having more coverage and base in the Middle East and they don't concentrate on the mundane.

Lastly, if you take the time to listen to what a man or woman from the military says who has actually been to Iraq, you will realize that their stories sync up better with the foriegn news coverage rather than the US news.

Just stating the facts. I give foriegn news a thumbs up for remaining true to the code of journalism and not producing the smut that CNN, Fox News, and other US networks are these days. They need to clean up their act or citizens of the US are just going to remain ill-informed, and thats a dangerous thing.