PressEthic

A story posted two days ago on Al Jazeera's English Web site claims that Israel not only dropped cluster bombs during its war with Lebanon this summer, but actually planted land mines in southern Lebanon. The story uses a report from the UN Mine Action Commission Center as its main source--which seems reputable. No similar story appears in the New York Times, a source of international news Americans generally trust. This is an instance in which Al Jazeera's coverage of the Middle East matters most. If Americans were to embrace the TV channel, or at least the Web site, they would have access to a new perspective on a divisive issue that never seems to receive fair coverage in the U.S. media.

"Israel Orders Investigation of Bomb Use In Lebanon," read a New York Times headline on November 21, but the story did not discuss land mines, only cluster bombs. The headline also failed to capture what many would see, on a human level, as the most important news: that unexploded components of cluster bombs still riddle the ground in parts of Lebanon. It would seem to be only a matter of time before Al Jazeera, known for its conspiracy theories (that Abu Mosab Al Zarqawi was an American invention has always been my favorite), turned its more sensationalist eye on the Times itself. How, really, could the paper not report on the explosion of an anti-personel mine that cost two European disposal experts their feet?

An AP report the LA Times posted three days ago offers a more detailed account of the UN agency's report, and the event that lead to its findings. But Al Jazeera's story--and its presence in the American media scene--is still important.

Americans need to poke their heads outside their country's media bubble. They need to know that the groundbreaking news network that reaches viewers across the world is saying things that make sense. Al Jazeera's bad rap is hurting Americans more than anyone else; and those who decided to shut the network out of the American broadcasting world are only making things worse. As David Marash, a former Nightline reporter who is now Al Jazeera English's Washington based anchor is quoted as saying, "The more you know and understand how others see the world, the better you understand the world."