Charlie Rose

Thermidor  08/24/2009 10:08 PM Report

I'm a big fan of this show, but this is one of your weaker interviews Charlie. The total disconnect between the U.S. and the Arab World, the impossibility of dialogue, has never been so palpable. "The Middle East" is a dangerous object, not a place with human beings..

The Falloujah question I think was particularly crass. "Incitations towards violence"... I tell you, the images of those 4 mercenaries getting burned and ripped to shreds were "inciting violence". U.S. forces went into Falloujah for vengeance. They did it several times. Now the population of the city is 10 percent what it was before the war, half its buildings have been destroyed. That was the real effing story!

Al Jazeera, whatever its other coverage, should be praised for what it did in Falloujah.

robdverity  08/13/2009 07:15 PM Report

Congratulations on cable-free TV. Googled Al-jazeera cable, got this. Selected excerpts:

http://www.wrmea.com/archives/Sept_Oct_2007/0709024.html

Our magazine’s publisher, Andrew Killgore, executive editor Richard Curtiss, managing editor Janet McMahon and this writer spent a fascinating afternoon sneaking a look at what everyone else in the world can watch whenever they want—unless they happen to live in “the land of the free and home of the brave.”

British journalist David Frost, formerly with BBC; former CNN producer James Wright; Riz Khan and Veronica Pedrosa, former anchors at CNN International; and Dave Marash, a former correspondent for ABC News’ “Nightline,” are just a few of the 800 employees from 55 countries who have gathered to build this globally minded television news station.

Marash, who now co-anchors the network’s Washington, DC studio, described Al Jazeera English’s lofty goals: “We want to give the most sophisticated, most nuanced and most global view of the day’s events.”

Another phrase which has become an Al Jazeera English favorite is: “Every angle, every side.” Like its Arabic-language parent station, Al Jazeera English tries, with remarkable success, to provide “one side and then the other side,” and “an opinion and the other opinion.”

CarbonFoil  08/13/2009 06:45 PM Report

I don't subscribe to cable or satellite TV, so I don't know where the network is available. However, some PBS stations broadcast WorldFocus, which assembles news stories from networks around the world. Reports from Al-Jazeera English appear frequently there.

robdverity  08/13/2009 06:28 PM Report

Only have Time-Warner (basic?) cable - 70+ channels - none too useful. Is Al-Jazeera available to me?

robdverity  08/13/2009 06:22 PM Report

Unoriginal sychophant. Too good Foil. Repeating: "Compare Al-Jazeera's reporting to the actions of the Fourth Estate in the U.S.A., who obediently complied with Washington's request to keep graphic images of war violence and American coffins out of the news. War is inhernetly gruesome, noted Kahndar; to depict it accurately is to depict the truth. To decline to present this truth--i.e., to deny reality--is a type of propaganda we only weakly acknowledge. The Bush administration famously sought to create its own reality, and the mainstream (more accurately, dominant) media obediently disseminated its message before the Iraq War even began. A network that resists these kinds of government public relations campaigns is serving its viewers well.

"The Iraq War demonstrates the colossal failure of the mass media in complying with ruling-class interests. Al-Jazeera is well positioned to exploit that failure."

Apologize for plagiarism but better than my would-be contribution.

CarbonFoil  08/13/2009 06:12 PM Report

My apologies for referring to Mr. Wadah Khanfar variously as 'Kandahr' and 'Kandahr' in my comment below.

Clearly, I would not make a good journalist!

CarbonFoil  08/13/2009 06:07 PM Report

Charlie raised the objection of elite Americans that Al-Jazeera inflamed the anger of the Arab world by broadcasting footage of the massacre at Fallujah. Kandahr's response was absolutely correct: "It was happening in front of our eyes, on our doorstep." How could they ignore it? To report the facts on the ground and give them context is the essence of journalism. "Balancing" the story with lofty rhetoric about the noble intentions of the liberator/occupier doesn't make the event any less horrific. And, as Kahndar pointed out, that prerogative gets plenty of airtime from other media outlets and press releases.

Compare Al-Jazeera's reporting to the actions of the Fourth Estate in the U.S.A., who obediently complied with Washington's request to keep graphic images of war violence and American coffins out of the news. War is inhernetly gruesome, noted Kahndar; to depict it accurately is to depict the truth. To decline to present this truth--i.e., to deny reality--is a type of propaganda we only weakly acknowledge. The Bush administration famously sought to create its own reality, and the mainstream (more accurately, dominant) media obediently disseminated its message before the Iraq War even began. A network that resists these kinds of government public relations campaigns is serving its viewers well.

The Iraq War demonstrates the colossal failure of the mass media in complying with ruling-class interests. Al-Jazeera is well positioned to exploit that failure.

AntonGrambihler  08/13/2009 06:02 PM Report

The Education of the Palestine People and the News Reporting that needs to be done is that Israel was created by a terrorist uprising and has never abided by the United Nations resolution which authorized the taking of land from the Palestine People and giving it to the Terrorists. Israel does not have a signed Constitution. In addition this land called Israel illegally invaded its neighbors and illegally occupies this land and continues to destroy Palestine Homes and builds illegal settlements. Israel treats the Palestine People inhumanely and calls them Terrorists when they try to get their land back from the illegal Israeli Invasion. Why has the United States blocked the investigations of possible massacres of the Palestine People by Israel?

Why is the United States helping fund the rampant racism which allows the Genocide of the Palestine People and denies their right of return for the creation of a Jewish Homeland? The United States is spending over $3 Billion Dollars a year in support of this Crusade against the Palestine People. The United States Supreme Court continues to allow the blood of the Palestine people to be on the hands of the United States Government and its Citizens even though support of Religion is forbidden by the United States Constitution.

Has Israel ever apologized for committing the FIRST HOLOCAUST which occurred when they wiped out the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites? Does Israel think that this happened so long ago it should be forgotten, but their claim to the Holocaust land should not be forgotten?

Where is the News Media that is suppose to keep the Citizens informed?

If the 100% citizens were informed, do you think they would have supported taking land from the Palestine People and giving it to Terrorists? Do you think that they support funding the continued Racism and Genocide being committed by these Terrorists?

Abooora  08/13/2009 04:14 PM Report

I totally agree with you Mr.REMant, Al Jazeera channel is quite enough full dosage of news. Light, precise, honoset, and focoused.

Above all that I trully pull my hat off for you Mr. Rose for your unique way of delivering your show in a very mesmorising style, which no ONE else is qualified to do as excellant as you Mr. Rose. Keep up yourself for my sake. Thanks so much..

REMant  08/13/2009 02:25 PM Report

I was glad to see this interview, because it gives me the opportunity to say that since Al Jazeera English has become available on broadcast TV in the nation's capital and given me a chance to watch it on a regular basis, I think it has become, in an astonishingly short time, one of, if not THE, premier news channel in English, better IMHO than ABC, NBC and CBS and The News Hour put together. Its only rival seems to be the BBC. It easily beats Deutsche Welle and France 24. I no longer get CNN, but based on past experience I'd have to include them as well. It does feature Middle Eastern news, but not overly so, and it could be said just as well that everyone else under reports it. Its US news reporting is quite good, and it does excellent features too, but the thing that strikes me most about what I have seen is the superior news and editorial sense it always displays, as good as any newspaper I have ever seen, and I have yet to detect any bias. They just seem to have damn good people.