Al Jazeera

1. How effective do you think the Internet will be for Al Jazeera as it attempts to reach a U.S. audience?

I think it will have minimal effects on a U.S. audience because it is my opinion that most people, even in the professional world, watch the same news stations day-after-day. Especially if big cable networks, like Time-Warner, refuse to carry this station. The popularity of getting daily news via the internet has increased, but I think with the war on terror people will be less willing to trust a station from a place they do not feel they can trust.

2. Based on your own observations, do you think that Al Jazeera English should be allowed to broadcast in the U.S.?

In my own experience watching this network (via livestation) I noticed no bias and no radical news stories. The news stories they were covering were almost all regarding current events on a global scale, especially the recent disaster in Haiti. If this was shown on TV I would have no problem watching it. I certainly see more obvious bias on stations like Fox News that Americans watch on a daily basis.

3. What, if anything, do you notice about Al Jazeera's approach to telling the news? How is it different than the U.S.-based TV news outlets that you have experienced?

U.S.-based news covers many more stories happening in the U.S.A. and I have never seen the U.S.-based news show a story about someone like Osama Bin Laden’s son’s wife with a sympathetic theme. I would also find it difficult to believe someone like this would agree to interview with a U.S. news station for fear of how they would be portrayed or targeted.

4. While on the Al Jazeera site, be sure to check out the network's published Code of Ethics. Based on your own observations, do you think they are adhering to them?

I feel that the Al Jazeera network stuck to their code of ethics. They interviewed random citizens on the street as well as political experts, etc. They also covered stories on a global scale and seemed in go about their interviews in an unbiased fashion. I did not get the sense they were pushing for the story to go one way or the other.