[LANMaster]

WOW, the DNC guest list is getting stranger by the day.. First Michael MOOre, and now......

Al-Jazeera grabs spot in DNC convention
Boston Herald July 21, 2004

http://news.bostonherald.com/dncConv...rticleid=36521

It's been called everything from the CNN of the Arab world toTaliban TV. Next week, though, the controversial Al-Jazeera network will for the first time at a political convention take its place alongside other major networks in a skybox, providing live coverage of the Democratic National Convention from the FleetCenter.

Critics have charged that the Qatar-based network is a mouthpiece for Osama bin Laden because it has aired several unedited videos of the terrorist leader that some say could be spreading deadly messages to al-Qaeda sleeper cells. Adding fuel to the anti-American criticism is the network's airing of gruesome beheadings of captured Americans and others.



Simply amazing

[Ciberblade]

So does that translate into Al Jezeera supports the DNC? Thereby supporting the election of John Kerry?

[Stoner]

ummmm.... NO! Not invited! Nice try

They did say

The network also will have a box at the Republican National Convention at New York's Madison Square Garden next month.

Hardy har har

[plschwartz]

Originally Posted by LANMaster

WOW, the DNC guest list is getting stranger by the day.. First Michael MOOre, and now......

Al-Jazeera grabs spot in DNC convention
Boston Herald July 21, 2004

http://news.bostonherald.com/dncConv...rticleid=36521

It's been called everything from the CNN of the Arab world toTaliban TV. Next week, though, the controversial Al-Jazeera network will for the first time at a political convention take its place alongside other major networks in a skybox, providing live coverage of the Democratic National Convention from the FleetCenter.

Critics have charged that the Qatar-based network is a mouthpiece for Osama bin Laden because it has aired several unedited videos of the terrorist leader that some say could be spreading deadly messages to al-Qaeda sleeper cells. Adding fuel to the anti-American criticism is the network's airing of gruesome beheadings of captured Americans and others.



Simply amazing

I dont see that the possibility of many Moslems seeing for the first time this massive participation in the American democratic process should give you pause. I think that you sometimes forget that for hundreds of millions of people around the world we are the worlds #1 enemy. Would you invite only those networks which censor UBL. Where is your support fot the first amendment?

[Ciberblade]

ah, missed it
fair and balanced


I have a question...if they want to broadcast the show...what do they really want to see? Possible terror attack?

[LANMaster]

Ya nailed me, Jack. I didn't see that.

You have a point as well, Paul. But the 1st Amendment applies to America.
AlJezeera is hardly an unbias or fair news organization.

.... but I do concede your point.

[rextilleon]

Lanmaster, you are a devious soul. AL Jazzerra wasn't INVITED to the DNC--as you put in your headline---Al Jazerra asked for credentials to attend the DNC and report from the DNC. Al Jazeera will also attend the RNC. You really are incorrigible, you need to get a life.

[Stoner]

Originally Posted by ciberblade

ah, missed it
fair and balanced


I have a question...if they want to broadcast the show...what do they really want to see? Possible terror attack?

I don't have the link right now.
Earlier in the day I saw an article that noted there might be a domestic terrorist attack on the media at both conventions.
I wondered what the motive was.
Now LAN brings up Al-Jazeera.
Perhaps with Al-Jazeera making a presence, they might be the target??
Just a thought..........

[Pacalis]

I see nothing wrong with it , I think that showing off the Democratic form of Government to Countries (especially ones from the Middle East) is an excellent way to show our governing process.

[Wino]

Originally Posted by Pacalis

I see nothing wrong with it , I think that showing off the Democratic form of Government to Countries (especially ones from the Middle East) is an excellent way to show our governing process.

Pacalis - not to make light of your statement, but I would think anyone not familiar with our political conventions will come away with "these Americans are crazier than I thought" - and they may have a point! we are about to get so much smoke blown up our butt from the DNC/RNC we will probably smell like smoke cured hams.

On another point, the DNC is being held in the "Fleet" Center - Isn't that the name of an over the counter enema?

Regarding AlJazeera, According to the right wing, Kerry is the terrorist and Osama's choice for prez, so the DNC should be safe from attack.

[angelize56]

July 23, 2004

From Al Jazeera to BBC, Conventions Are Hot Story

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the war in Iraq make this year's party nominating events extra compelling for the global media.

By Nick Anderson, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — Among the many logo-bedecked television skyboxes visible from the floor of the Fleet Center in Boston, one name sticks out: Al Jazeera.

"That says so much about where the world is now — and about the interest in this election," marveled CNN Washington bureau chief David Bohrman. He saw the Arabic- language news channel's insignia the other day as he surveyed the Democratic National Convention hall in Boston.

Qatar-based Al Jazeera is one of many international news organizations covering this year's political conventions. When Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts accepts the Democratic nomination for president Thursday, he will speak to an audience that is not just national but global.

In Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and Latin America, millions of people are expected to follow the Democratic National Convention through TV, radio and other media to learn more about the man trying to unseat President Bush.

Many will tune in again when Republicans renominate Bush in New York at their convention Aug. 30 to Sept. 2.

International interest in modern American politics always runs high. But political analysts and foreign journalists say it has surged since the terrorist attacks of 2001 and subsequent U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. That means deeper coverage of the 2004 campaign and other domestic events previously obscure to the typical person in, say, the Middle East.

"For us, it is exciting in a way to see how American democracy works and where the candidates stand, what makes them different from each other," said Nadia Bilbassey-Charters, a Washington correspondent for the Al Arabiya satellite TV channel. She is part of a team that plans to cover the conventions for the first time for the news channel, which is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Like its competitor Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya serves an Arab audience. Bush administration officials have accused both channels of slanting their coverage against the U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq.

In January, Bilbassey-Charters went to New Hampshire to cover the Democratic nomination battle.

"It was difficult to explain to Arab audiences the differences between caucuses and primaries," she said, referring to the party gatherings and plebiscites, respectively, through which presidential candidates competed for convention delegates. International journalists matter far less to the two major parties than reporters from Ohio, Florida or other electoral battlegrounds. The conventions are staged for media outlets that can reach American voters. Foreign reporters generally don't, aside from a smattering of U.S. expatriates who vote by absentee ballots.

But to help the foreign media navigate the convention in New York, Republican National Convention spokesman Leonardo Alcivar said the GOP planned to have staff members fluent in Arabic and other languages.

There were no estimates available this week on the number of foreign news representatives the two parties expected among about 15,000 media personnel credentialed for the conventions.

The State Department counts more than 2,600 journalists residing in the United States who have registered with its foreign press centers in Washington, New York and Los Angeles. Many are expected to cover the Democratic and GOP conventions firsthand, bolstered by news crews flying into Boston and New York from around the world.

The British Broadcasting Corp. is dispatching 15 members of its Washington bureau and more from London to cover the Democrats. The convention will air live during the wee hours on a BBC channel ordinarily devoted to the British Parliament, with excerpts replayed later each day. Another BBC channel will have its newscasts straddle the Atlantic, with one co-anchor in London and another in Boston or New York.

BBC Washington bureau chief Martin Turner says the 2004 election has a "pitch of intensity" that far exceeds the contest between Bush and Democrat Al Gore in 2000.

"We've moved so far beyond it — with 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq. You put those together with George W. Bush, who is an enormously controversial figure in the rest of the world, and you've got a recipe for something that is of enormous interest to our audience," he said.

Agence France-Presse said it planned to deploy English-, French-, Spanish- and German-speaking reporters in Boston.

Francis Kohn, chief North America editor for the wire service, said the world was curious about Bush's challenger.

"It's like in America — you don't know very much about John Kerry. There is a hunger to know more about his personality and about what he would do," Kohn said.

Fumihiko Kure, Washington bureau chief for Nippon Television Network, said he expected that Kerry's acceptance speech next week would be carried live in Japan.

Because the United States is the world's dominant power, analysts say, foreigners can't afford to ignore American politics. White House decisions on military troop deployments, strategic arms, international trade, fiscal policy, immigration, environmental protection and a host of other issues reverberate around the world every day.

"It's not new to other countries that what we do matters," said John Hamilton, an expert on foreign news coverage and dean of the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. "But some things have changed. One is that the United States is now perceived abroad in a very negative way compared to the way we were seen after the Second World War."

Many foreign reporters based in the United States have been covering the presidential campaign since the Iowa caucuses. The State Department's foreign press centers organized trips to Des Moines in January and then to New Hampshire and South Carolina for the subsequent primaries. Officials said attendance on these trips was about 25% higher than four years ago.

Jose Carreño, Washington correspondent for the Mexican newspaper El Universal, has gone to nearly every convention since 1984. He said some of his Latin American peers would be going to the conventions this year for the first time.

Carreño plans to watch how the Democrats and Republicans court Latino voters and what they say to people worldwide.

"For the average American, it may be dull," Carreño said. "But if you look at it from a foreign point of view, a lot of the speeches could be important pronouncements. So we are looking for meaning."

[angelize56]

LAN: This is an article from Al Jazeera....it seems the polls might be more accurate done outside the US!

Poll: Arabs less favourable to US

Saturday 24 July 2004

A new opinion poll says Arab attitudes towards the United States have deteriorated significantly over the last two years.

The poll, conducted in June with a sample base of 3,300 Arabs in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, found US foreign policy was primarily to be blamed.

"Why do they hate us? It's the policy, stupid," said James Zogby, president of the Arab-American Institute.

"We have seen an unfortunate evolution since 2002," said pollster John Zogby, who is James Zogby's brother. "They still detest policy but the numbers…of Arabs and Muslims who view American features and people favourably are certainly down from what it was in 2002."

Dim view

US policy on Iraq, "terrorism", Arabs and Palestine drew extremely low ratings, while Arab attitudes towards US science and technology, freedom and democracy, people, movies, television, products and education fared somewhat better.

Ratings of the US have dropped from 38% favourable to 11% favourable in Morocco from 2002 to 2004.

The drop in Saudi Arabia was from 12% to 4%; in Jordan from 34% to 15%, in Lebanon from 26% to 20% and in Egypt from 15% to 2%.

Only in the United Arab Emirates did the favourable rating rise from 11% to 14%.

When asked what they considered the best thing about the US, high percentages of respondents in all six countries said "nothing".

The poll's error margin varied from plus or minus 3.8% to 5% points, depending on the country polled.

[angelize56]

And here's another!

Mubarak: Arabs hate Americans now
Tuesday 20 April 2004, 17:02 Makka Time, 14:02 GMT

Arabs in the Middle East hate the United States more than ever after the invasion of Iraq and Israel's assassination of two Hamas leaders, Egyptian President Husni Mubarak has said.

Mubarak, who visited the United States last week, told Tuesday's issue of French newspaper Le Monde that Washington's actions had caused despair, frustration and a sense of injustice in the Arab world.

"Today there is hatred of the Americans like never before in the region," he said in an interview given during a stay in France, where he met President Jacques Chirac on Monday.

He blamed the hostility partly on US support for Israel, which assassinated Hamas leader Abd Al-Aziz al-Rantisi in a missile strike in the Gaza Strip on Saturday weeks after killing the Palestinian group's spiritual leader Shaikh Ahmad Yasin.

Unprecedented

"At the start some considered the Americans were helping them. There was no hatred of the Americans. After what has happened in Iraq, there is unprecedented hatred and the Americans know it," Mubarak said.

"People have a feeling of injustice. What's more, they see (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon acting as he pleases, without the Americans saying anything. He assassinates people who don't have the planes and helicopters that he has."

Mubarak said the assassination of al-Rantisi could have "serious consequences" and that instability in Gaza and Iraq would not serve US or Israeli interests.

"The despair and feeling of injustice are not going to be limited to our region alone. American and Israeli interests will not be safe, not only in our region but anywhere in the world," he said.

Asked about Sharon's plan to pull out of Gaza, Mubarak welcomed any withdrawal that was agreed with the Palestinians and in line with a peace "road map" drawn up by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.

[Wino]

Angel - I'm sure your last couple of post will get the normal response from the usual suspects, "Who cares what the filthy French and Arabs think about the USA. We don't need nobody!"

[iltos]

....so maybe the convention will be aired as a comedy....

makes me wonder, tho, with the opinion of the u.s. falling off the charts, what the reasoning is behind covering either convention...some here have suggested "to cover the terrorist attacks"....seems a little short sighted

perhaps its nothing more than evidence that neither convention is just a political game show anymore, that even if americans are slipping towards democratic apathy, the rest of world still watches with interest....