Time to De-Sanitize American Media

June 2

8:23 pm Doha

1:23 pm Eastern

I know most Americans get their news from Matt Lauer in the morning or Fox News when they want a good dose of biased and opinionated coverage.  Every now and then they flip to CNN to feel as if they have learned something, but they are missing something.  They need to get away from American news.  I’m not saying to stop watching it or that it is even bad (well maybe Fox) but it is so different and “sanitized” then most international new coverage.

My first experience with “de-sanitized” news was when I travelled to Europe during high school.  We received a European paper that was in English.  One day when I stepped out to pick it up I remember being shocked by the cover.    On the cover was a picture of a dead body, badly maimed.  It was the summer of 2005 and I was 15.

Since that time I have questioned why our papers in the US do not show the same images or video.  As I have studied journalism I have come to realize that the average American has been treated gently since the Vietnam War.  Yes, this is partly because there is more censorship by the government and the military about what can and cannot be shown from battle grounds by embedded reporters, but also news outlets have realized that people do not want the hard truth, they want whatever is easiest to digest.  They would rather a picture of a bombed out building than the picture of the family that was killed when the bombing occurred.

I understand.  People do not like violence and do not want to look at it or talk about it.  I have two problems with the sanitizing of media though.  One, people stop to care.  People forget that we are fighting two wars and that everyday Americans, Afghanis and Iraqis are dying.  They do not hear the estimates that over one million Iraqis have been killed since the start of the war.  My second problem is that I do not want my news sanitized. I want to know and see what is truly happening.  How can I be effective in pushing for change if I do not know that there is something that needs to change or am not shocked by what I see?

My number one news source is BBC Online along with CNN (online and television).  I search Google news about the latest news events and read stories from different sources.  To be well informed you have to work at it.  We are lucky that we have computers and uncensored internet access. We have the world’s information at our finger tips, we just have to read.
This all leads to Al Jahzeera English.  We visited the headquarters here in Doha.  Here’s a little background.  In 1996 the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa, decided to fund a television station that would be completely independent and have complete uncensored freedom to do what they like.  Years later, this is still the case.

Being fully funded by a government but having the freedom to say and telecast anything newsworthy is every journalist and every broadcasters dream.  It allows the journalists to truly do their work without self censorship for fear of government backlash or without the sensationalism so present in American media in order to make more money.

Al Jahzeera English (which is all I can speak to as an English speaker) began in 2006 with many of those in charge coming from BBC.  The day it launched they had 80 million viewers worldwide.  The problem is that only a handful of cities in the US (one being Burlington, VT) have Al Jahzeera English.  On the bright side it will be added in Washington DC and 20 other cities starting in July of this year.

To watch it now you can head to livestation.com and stream video.  I have no idea what it’s like, but give it a try.  Also, to help further the Al Jahzeera English presences in the US, you can go to IWantAJE.net and type in your zip code to alert the local cable provider (I sound like a commercial).

Richard Lewis, the main program editor, said to us that the goal is to take the tape off the mouth, blinders off the eyes and cotton out of the ears of every viewer.  While even he admits that the English version is a bit more sanitized than the Arabic, he stands by their slogan, “Every Angle, Every Side.”

In an area of the world where people think that the US is controlled by Israel and US media is simply a tool to create sympathy for the Israelis, Al Jahzeera prides itself on being the enemy of both Western powers and Arab leaders.  Yes, Bush called them the mouthpiece of terrorists because they played Osama Bin Laden’s tapes, but any American station would have too given the chance, though for different reasons.  American news needs to be de-sanitized and Americans need to be more informed and more aware with what is happening in our world.