Finally, Al Jazeera English blankets U.S.
So how much longer is it really going to matter that Al Jazeera English is not available on American cable systems?
You may know I've written about this, a few times, in the past. Thanks to a new live-streaming program, however, it is now possible to watch the Qatar-based news channel with the decidedly non-Western-powers P.O.V. 24/7 on your computer.
For the past two years much of AJE's content has been posted to YouTube. But that only meant a fraction of its thousands of hours of live and taped programming each year was viewable in the U.S. (except of course, for the Pentagon and Burlington, Vt., and Toledo, Ohio, the handful of cable systems that carry AJE).
Today, however, I downloaded a new program called LiveStation that carries a number of poorly-distributed English-language news channels live -- let me say that in boldface: live -- on its special program.
The video quality is OK (full-screen mode is kinda homebrew-looking) but you don't tune in Al Jazeera English for the video quality. And yes, you can chat with friends (as in the photo; click to enlarge) while watching AJE. But ... you really don't tune in for that, either. You tune in for the reporting from corners of the world that drop off the NBC-ABC-CBS map from time to time (not sure if they were ever on Fox's map). You tune in for "Listening Post," its outstanding media-crit program, and special reports from Josh Rushing, such as the new series that you can read about below.
So far, I've about 25 minutes into a live newscast and AJE has covered the latest in the Zimbabwean meltdown; Hamas suspending its ceasefire; something Indonesia (Rachel Maddow was doing something interesting on TV so I wasn't paying attention); and a controversial killing of a popular dissident in Columbia. And after the break, they're going to cover the Rick Warren story. (Update: They had a Human Rights Campaign spokesman in studio, who noted that Warren "equated me and my husband to people practicing bestiality." How many American-owned networks did that?)
We're getting ever closer to Nirvana: any live video from anywhere in the world on my big screen TV at any time. Until we get there, I'll take this.
NEW AL JAZEERA SERIES TO FOCUS ON THE HUMAN SIDE OF WAR
Former US Marine Josh Rushing brings a global perspective to war
NEW YORK, NY (December 18, 2008) – In a new documentary series to air on Al Jazeera, former United States Marine Josh Rushing travels the world exploring the impact of war on various societies. The six part series titled “On War” will bring viewers from the bomb-ridden Laos countryside to the jungles of Peru to the bustling center of an arms sale in Jordan, all the while focusing on the personal stories of the individuals caught in the middle of conflicts. The series runs from late December through January and can be streamed in real time for free at English.aljazeera.net or via livestation.com.
About the Episodes:
Long considered the worst massacre of civilians by US soldiers, the atrocities in My Lai still leave people wondering how such an event could happen. In Return to My Lai – 40 Years Later, Al Jazeera brings a former soldier, who was charged with nine murders back to My Lai to meet with one of the remaining survivors. Josh Rushing speaks to four other aging survivors about their memories of that day as well as Military Attorney Gary Myers, who represented a soldier in the My Lai investigation and also soldiers at Abu Ghraib, to get a unique perspective on why such tragedies re-occur.
In Merchants of War, Rushing goes inside Amman, Jordan for the one of the largest arms bazaars in the world. More than 500 “high ranking decision makers” attend a one day conference about security in the Middle East. Al Jazeera investigates some of the high-tech weapons featured at the bazaar and focuses on the Kerik Group, which positions supermax prisons as the answer to prevent the radicalization of prisoners. Rushing interviews Bernard Kerik, a former Police Commissioner of New York City and speaks to David Fathi of Human Rights Watch about the detrimental effects of supermax prisons.
In Whatever Happened to My Class of 2000 Rushing, a former marine, will catch up fellow graduates from his class from officer training school. The first class of the millennium, their world soon changed when they were deployed to the Middle East. Rushing seeks out and profiles five of his fellow graduates and looks at how their lives and careers have taken unexpected turns, from multiple tours in Iraq, to Harvard law school.
Legacy of War focuses on the lasting impact of war in Laos. Though the tiny country was never officially at war with the United States it is the most bombed country on earth. The campaign to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos during the Vietnam War has left tons of unexploded ordinance scattered throughout the country. Al Jazeera takes newly declassified material from US archives, uncovered for the first time, to the Lao government agency working to rid the countryside of UXO. Rushing explores the underground economy of scrap metal scavenging and the dangers it poses for those who make a living selling the deadly weapons.
In Peru, the formerly idealistic Maoist guerrilla force, The Shining Path, is supporting its operations by drug trafficking. In Chasing The Shining Path, Josh Rushing follows their trail, through a Peruvian military base in Ayacucho where Americans are providing humanitarian aid and visits a coca farmer who sells his product to the drug dealers. He also interviews with a member of the new Shining Path, who admits they now finance their activities by running protection rackets.
Finally, in Profit and Loss, Al Jazeera profiles Anniston, Alabama, a small town powered by a big defense contractor, and explores the consequences, both emotional and financial, of a war that provides an entire town with a living while taking the lives and limbs of its sons and daughters.
