• manualoverride@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      A news channel created by the state of Qatar and initially staffed by ex BBC presenters who were paid massive amounts to attempt to astroturf over their human rights abuses and corruption.

      Edit: forgot to add, Qatar also imposes censorship on journalism and uses Al Jazeera to push their “truth”. Hence the irony.

      • PearOfJudes@lemmy.ml
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        3 months ago

        Totally fair. I personally think Al Jazeera has been a positive force, spreading the word on the Gaza Genocide, the Sudanese massacres & conflict, and their unapologetic leftism. And the Qatar government hosted peace talks between Israel and Palestinian groups. I have never heard that BBC presenter thing though.

      • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 months ago

        OK yeah but every major “news” channel is like this.

        For example, the NYTimes regularly publishes disinformation and pro-genocide propaganda.

        Claims that AJ is exceptionally bad are often motivated by imperialism, islamophobia, zionism, etc.

        • ThirdConsul@lemmy.ml
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          3 months ago

          OK yeah but every major “news” channel is like this

          That’s literally “whataboutism”.

          • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.uk
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            3 months ago

            Ignoring real censorship in the UK because the originating nation of the news source also has censorship… is whataboutism.

        • manualoverride@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          I don’t think I ever said they were particularly bad… just stating facts here. The opinion that “every major news channel is like this” however is troubling. All news channels have their influences, you just have to identify what they are and adjust critical thinking accordingly.