Alternatives to Al Jazeera

[Walsingham]

I've been startled by the overtly partisan nature of Marwan Bishara's political editing for some time, but this 'defence' piece was the final straw. There wasn't a jot of analysis in the whole thing. It sounded like a propaganda video put out by the Pakistani government!

 

Can anyone suggest a sensible English language media source as an alternative? I had been using Al J as a mild and admittedly incomplete counterbalance to my usual BBC/Stratfor/Financial Times/Guardian round.

[Rosbjerg]

The problem for European viewers is that the whole "objective" angle is pretty unique to our part of the world and we aren't really any good at, even when we try.. so no there's no good alternative, everybody has an agenda.

 

Basically though; the "free'r" the country is and the lesser renown a station -> better coverage.

[Walsingham]

I don't mind an agenda, provided the analysis is good. The Financial Times is unequivocally on the side of feelthy capitalists, but it's always good to read.

[Orogun01]

Try some Indian news, they probly pissed by all the bombs on the border.

[lord of flies]

I don't mind an agenda, provided the analysis is good. The Financial Times is unequivocally on the side of feelthy capitalists, but it's always good to read.

Liberation newspaper. You can read many articles online at pslweb.org. Edited April 19, 2010 by lord of flies

[Humodour]

I avoid Al Jazeera. They're one of the less biased Middle Eastern news sources, and are good for a different perspective on international relations, but in some respects it's as useless as reading any newspaper that comes from China.

 

Between Voice of America, BBC, Reuters, Bloomberg, and the various Australian news gigs, I get an OK analysis of things.

[Monte Carlo]

You're already there, Wals, the BBC's spin on most matters is identikit to the Grauniad and Al-Jazeera.

 

Hippy.

[Walsingham]

Hang on, Monte. I steadfastly maintain that - accounting for leaning - you can't do better than the Grauniad for political coverage, and you can't do better than the Torygraph for (basic) defence news.

 

Thinking about it, I'm sure I once saw a magazine which did translation of foreign news media. Can anyone remember such an object?

 

EDIT: How about a blog? Maybe there's a blog out there which would present a limited countercase?

Edited April 20, 2010 by Walsingham

[Monte Carlo]

Both Slate (US) and The First Post (UK) have pretty good, unbiased, reporting on politics and current affairs.

 

The Grauniad is an evil rag read by kool-aid drinking astro-turfers, supported solely by government recruitment ads for non-jobs.

[Humodour]

Wals, a bunch of democratic Asian countries have news companies that produce English language versions.

 

Indonesia is a good one because it has a free press, is democratic, is the largest Muslim country in the world, is part of Asia, and is detached from the Mid East and Arab world. The Jakarta Post is probably the prominent English news source of Indonesia.

 

Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines also have English language news sources which are a good read when they haven't been ripped straight from Reuters or the AP. Strangely, I'm not aware of any English languages news sources from Japan.

 

Indian papers are worth a read if you can get over the structure of Indian English.

[Walsingham]

I want to move beyond the US and UK, Monte. I may well try Indian as Krez suggests. I've run across numerous articles over the years which struck me as excellent.

[Monte Carlo]

Do you mean the Anglosphere too? Aussie and Kiwi papers are OK, Canadian news sources are a bit stuffy but can diverge agreeably from dry-as-an-attic US journalism.

 

I tried to read Indian newspapers, it's not their English that's the issue for me (they are well-written) but the staggeringly complicated politics, religion and society. A world where I had enough time to immerse myself in it would be great, but alas...

[HoonDing]

Subscribing to Bin Laden's Facebook might do it.

[Walsingham]

Subscribing to Bin Laden's Facebook might do it.

 

:lol:

 

Bin Laden tweeting from his sick bed.

[Killian Kalthorne]

I do avoid Fox and MSNBC. They are like the polar opposite of each other. I do get some news from CNN and BBC, but the bulk of it I read from the local newspapers.