Pan-Arab Al-Jazeera buys Current TV from Al Gore. By RYAN NAKASHIMA. America the Beautiful. More is better.
Great Nation Under God
An Arab based Media Giant buys a US Media player. Al Jazeera and Current.
Time Warner immediately dropped Current from it’s programming. This writer’s immediate response was, “interesting!”. The deal is true and was announced by Al Gore. On a strictly freedom of press issue it makes a lot of sense. Al Jazeera established itself as a bona fide news group. They already reach several million American homes on TV. I have read them consistently on the Internet for years. They provide a strong otherwise unheard voice and viewpoint. This acquisition will provide at least another 10 million households in the US with this news source.
Al Jazeera and Al Gore are both here to stay.
For years I have shook my head at the ridiculous headline reporting of the big US networks. For years I have taken what the report with a grain of salt. For years I only occasionally watch a full news cycle. US news networks have become increasingly biased and entertainment based. Most reports lose focus on the news and provide a somewhat lopsided view. Too bad.
Al-Jazeera fits right in with our current programming. It is lopsided and biased.
Different views and bias are critical to our way of an informed populace making decisions. Ignorance has never helped our country prosper. If our current news sources will not clean up their act and present different sides of the story, well then we need more sources that do.
Al-Jazeera will balance our lopsided press.
If you tune into mass media in the United States and are immediately confronted by "news" that is either decidedly liberal or decidedly conservative you are the one to create the filter. It is up to us these days to make sure we do not act like "I know it is true I read it on the Internet" or "I know it is true I saw it on the news". So now we have another extreme that we can learn from and place into our pre-filtered gathering of information. That is a good thing.
In order to retain our greatness, America must stand for inclusion and tolerance and awareness.
"Yes I would die for my faith, but I would rather die for another's right to have it." In the US Civil war a song was made popular and it had a very cool phrase in it. Probably you have heard it. It goes along these lines: As He died to make men Holy let us die to make men free. I think those are words that require some sacrifice from us. As brothers fought brothers in our civil war, most dying was done to provide totally different people with the same rights we have. We need to at least understand other points of view to insure we do not deny rights.
What could possibly be great, if it is not shared.
Time Warner was wrong to immediately censor.
In this country we let the market and hence the populace vote with their wallet. Time Warner should have let the viewers make a decision. The Laws in the country maintained by the citizenry strictly allow such freedom of press. Let the citizenry decide.
When we censor we stop a voice. When we stop a voice we build resentment and darkness on a subject. When we do this we remove legitimate empowerment from those who wish to speak. We force them into alternative methods to get their voices heard. Violence is hateful. Silence is deafening. If the Muslim world is somehow my enemy then I am a fool not to learn of their ways. I do not believe it is so I would be a fool not to learn of my brother. The concept “Let Freedom Reign” is for all, for if Freedom does not reign tyranny will.
Let me close by giving you a song. I am not saying it is a great song or fantastically performed. I am just suggesting that sometimes songs like "Battle Hymn of the Republic" help us get fired up about a subject and that that is a good thing.