Europe travel advisory: Al Jazeera better than CNN
It’s probably no surprise to readers of this blog that no hotel we have stayed on our European vacation has had Fox News. CNN International and BBC World have been the exclusive English language stations, so it’s easy to guess the view of America that was projected – not a lot about the Tea Party movement but endless blather about how Teddy Kennedy was the greatest statesman since Cicero and thank various deities that massive health care reform in the backward USA will soon be enacted in his memory. Nauseating, of course, but you watch because it’s the only thing on. Call it MA (Masochism Abroad).
And then it seemed to get worse. We checked into the Hotel Villa Malaspina in a southern suburb of Verona and found neither CNN, nor the BBC on our room TV. No English-language channel at all, only something listed as “ALLJAZZ,” which I took to be easy listening and dismissed. Only accidentally surfacing for a soccer match did I discover it was Al Jazeera in English! At first I was appalled that the only English- language channel in an Italian hotel would be Al Jazeera, but, MA that I am, I sprawled out on the bed and watched. (It was also 34 degrees c. outside and the room was air conditioned.)
I expected the worst, of course, but was soon astonished. Except for those stories when the “I”-word was prominent (you know, that little country south of Lebanon), Al Jazeera was clearly better, more honest, more informative and more entertaining than CNN International or the BBC. And kinder to the US. In fact, it wasn’t even close. Also, since much of the news they reported was coming from the Middle East, they seemed better informed about such things as the death of the Iraqi Shiite leader Hakim (they referred to Saddam Hussein flatly as a fascist, something you rarely hear on CNN) and the Al Qaeda suicide bombing in Saudi Arabia (they had nothing but withering contempt for Al Qaeda – no pussy-footing “insurgent” rhetoric for them).
Now I admit I don’t listen to Al Jazeera at home. And I am undoubtedly influenced by my disgust for CNN and the BBC. But still, I am reconsidering my hotel selection criteria. For here on in, I suspect I will see “Al Jazeera available” as a plus – or at least neutral.
But one should not need TV when one has the internet. I gave up TV 5 years ago. I have not regretted this decision.
I lived in Italy for a year and the only English language tv station I had access to was BBC. I speak English, Spanish, and Italian. I discovered that the BBC voice over translations for Spanish and Italian when there were Spanish or Italian speakers could hardly been counted on for accuracy. This led me to wonder about all the other languages that they provided translations for on news broadcasts. Was it incompetence or deliberate? I tended to think it was deliberate.
One of the many benefits of living or traveling outside the country is the chance to experience different perspectives. Whether they are positive or negative isn’t really important as long as they serve to educate and increase your awareness of your home and your world.
Have enjoyed your entries on your European vacation. I lived in Italy for four years and Venice used to be my favorite city until I took my family back there for vacation two years ago. It’s now a museum or theme park, not a real city. In the 1960s, the population of Venice was 300,000 people. Today, it is 70,000 and most days there are far more tourists than Venetians. The quality of the cuisine has diminished greatly as a result.
Your point on US media and their projection of America to European and other audiences is one of my pet bugaboos. Even Europeans with some affection for America get most of their news from Time/Newsweek, CNN and the now lamentable Int’l. Herald Tribune. The American Right are viewed as troglodytes by European who fail to understand the strong libertarian streak that runs through the American right.
Enjoy the rest of your trip as I enjoy reading about it.
Confirms my view of Al Jazeera. From the beginning objective reporting – ya gotta look for it – said that these guys were dedicated to bringing a more objective view to the Arab world. It’s a very delicate undertaking. Glad to see it’s working out.
Well, when you come home, CNN will seem like the WSJ’s editorial page, so, you have that going for you, which is nice.
The international feed of Contemptible News Network is much worse (yes, it’s possible) than the one for domestic consumption. At one point my Israeli cable provider seriously considered dropping it for being both very expensive and terribly impopular with viewers. (And yes, the same provider has no problem carrying Al-Jizzeera, in the original Arabic.)
Similar story with the Bolshy Bollocks Commissars — the World feed is even worse than the domestic one.
As for me, I just check for high-speed internet, and cable be d*mned. Heck, I can even watch PJTV that way
I wonder where Al Jazeera finds journalists who are not confirmed left wing anti-Americans. BBC and the so-called elite newspapers appear to have given up.
This is just one of many examples of how the rest of the world now views the US in a better light, now that we also have a totalitarian government.
What would be really worth knowing is whether Al Jazeera in English gives the same news and commentary it gives in Arabic.
My younger sister is a rolling stone. After several years globe-trotting to far off destinations and living the life of an illegal alien in nearly all of them, she decided to settle down and become a legitimate resident alien of Germany. For years, she told me that she much preferred the BBC to CNNi, which I often mocked ruthlessly having personally witnessed BBC reporters making stories up out of whole cloth when they were embedded with us in Iraq.
One day, she confessed to me that she had found a new favorite news network in Al Jezeera. She was (and still is) dating an Iranian expatriate, so I decided to withhold my criticism. As the conversation progressed, and I mentioned the then current John Edwards busted having an affair with Reilly Hunter thing that I had read about on various blogs, an amazing thing occurred. She had actually heard about it! I was amazed, because as all the blogs had noted, this wasn’t being shown on most TV networks in the US because they were covering for their party members. “Where did you hear about that?” says I. “They were talking about it on Al Jezeera for nearly a week!” said she. I was flabbergasted. Here was someone who wasn’t even going to vote who had heard about a major event in the election that was buried by the US News media. Amazing.
Welcome to the party Roger.
As an International AirLine Crew member, I am constantly trapped in hotels around the world as prisoner of CNN International or BBC. Worst is Japan, with zero other options available of any kind. China is much better because the English version of CCTV is decent, and Russia Today TV, tho’ not great, still beats the Beeb or CNN’s Richard Quest News-desk by a mile. Ditto’s on your comments about Al Jazirah as a better alternative.
CNN International and the BBC are a constant stream of mental poison about America, and if I grew up with a constant diet of that and no other perspective, I’d hate this country too. Trust me, you cannot overstate how damaging and depressing those 2 networks are to the International image of America. Thanks for this posting.
I was in Beijing, summer, 2005. I watched CCTV(Chinese Central TV) which was much more impartial, more professional, “was clearly better, more honest, more informative and more entertaining than CNN International or the BBC. And kinder to the US. In fact, it wasn’t even close.”
How does Arab language Al Jazeera compare to the English version?
I don’t doubt that Al-Jazeera is less biased than CNN or the BBC. But that says more about CNN and BBC than it does Al-Jazeera.
We are stuck with CNN International in the Philippines, and it is very anti American…
what makes it worse is even if the news is neutral, it is reported by multicultural elites with a British accent who sneer and look as if they are mocking what they are reading….one pervert who was arrested in Central Park is the worst one for this, but the dark haired women are almost as bad.
as for the Philippine news, they parrot the network news…
I second Daddy on the CNNi stranglehold in hotels that travellers use in Japan.
If you speak Japanese, however, you can get in the morning a few minutes of news from CNN, ABC, BBC, DeutschWelle, Russia, Korea, China, and Spain (Telediario) on NHK-BS (broadcast satellite).
fwiw, they get Al Jazeera in Israel, both the arabic and english version and it is available at almost every 3, 4 or 5 star hotel there.
good luck trying to find Fox anywhere outside the USA
Roger, any coverage of the La Canada fire? Be glad you are over there! Just saw it from LAX and the assortment of fire clouds give you some idea what Vesuvius must have looked like in 79 C.E.
I have heard that Al Jazeera in English and Al Jazeera in Arabic are not exactly the same – the Arabic version being far more anti-american.
The salient point here is not A-JE’s professionalism, but the fact that the network has apparently, er, superseded CNN in parts of Europe.
Yes. I discovered the same (rather shocking) thing while traveling in India. Al Jazeera actually makes more of an effort to present a balanced view than either CNN or the BBC. And of course Al Jazeera is far from balanced. I would rank the BBC as the most anti-American, then CCN, then Al Jazeera.
Just great comments.
Remember the BBC used to be the gold standard in international news.
Certainly CNN embargoed the Van Jones story; any word on how BBC handled it??
Why don’t you explore and engage with the society, culture and language in Italy instead of complaining about English-speaking news channels in hotel rooms? What is the point of traveling abroad if you expect to find your national news channels everywhere you go? I have never come across any German, French or Italian speaking channels in American hotel rooms. BBC is a UK channel, the UK is in Europe so obviously it will be more frequent here.
As for Al-Jazeera: I don’t understand why you expected the worst. Just because it’s an Arab channel? Al-Jazeera has long been known for it’s great coverage of Middle Eastern and international affairs. This has especially been enhanced through its in-depth analysis and coverage of the Arab Spring.