Source for International news in English

[Frame57]

Originally Posted by Platapus

A lot can be learned by studying extremist sites like that.

"Know thy enemy"

[Tchocky]

Al Jazeera isn't an extremist organisation by any measure. Good news channel and website. Maybe ye are all being sarcastic

[Skybird]

Know your enemy.

If you want to outthink him, you need to learn how he sees things, no matter how strange that view appears to you. It does not matter what you think he should think - it is about you understanding how he ticks in fact.

That'S why I occasionally visit al Jazeerah as well. It makes me shaking my head, and laugh at times, but one needs to track what the other side is thinking, and why. If you do not know the drives and motivations of your enemy, you cannot project his next moves, and how his moves are linked to one strategy, and what that strategy is about.

20 seconds-news-spots don't understand all this. They make sure to educate a people becoming stupid and mentally impotent. That's why I consider much of the modern quick-news programs as dangerous and harmful.

[Wreford-Brown]

Originally Posted by Tchocky

Al Jazeera isn't an extremist organisation by any measure. Good news channel and website. Maybe ye are all being sarcastic

Al Jazeera itself isn't extremist but it gives an understanding of what the Middle Eastern mind thinks of international issues. It also tends to have news reports from the 'enemy' point of view with organisations such as al-Quaeda using it as the first international forum for their views before it gets passed to Reuters etc.

A good friend is fluent in both Farsi and Arabic and he tells me that the original (Arabic) version tends to be more informative than the English language version, but for Platapus' research it should be a decent source of info (look up their views on Georgia, for example).

[Tchocky]

I read Al Jazeera becuase it's a non Western-centric news organisation, covering a lot of stories that just don't get told in Europe/North America.
Not for any sense of trying to understand the "Middle Eastern mind", or "knowing my enemy". I thought we were past those kind of constructions.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Tchocky

Not for any sense of trying to understand the "Middle Eastern mind", or "knowing my enemy". I thought we were past those kind of constructions.

I thought that, too, but then reality overtook me on the right side, and laughed.

I occasionally skim over korean, russian and Israeli newspapers, too, and it is surprisng how some stories making big headlines over here - do not even get a small message there, and vice versa.

[Tchocky]

Firstly, there's no one coagulent mass that can be described as the "Middle Eastern mind". One might have noticed the many differences of opinion that exist in that corner of the world. Wars, etc. Terrorism, etc. Strrongly indicative of large differences of opinion. This kind of thinking, where an entire region can be distilled into a single personality, gets us precisely nowhere.

Second, if indeed there are enemies of mine sitting out there in Qatar, it's news to me. Rageh Omaar isn't my enemy, David Frost isn't my enemy. So who at Al-Jazeera is?
Maybe this "Middle Eastern mind" is my enemy. How shall I deal with him.

[Skybird]

Tchocky, you know what was meant, and you know that all this is no issue to debate at all, so why the show?

[Tchocky]

This "know your enemy" stuff makes no sense when applied to Al-Jazeera, whether taking it literally or figuratively.
Same goes for the crock about the Middle Eastern mind.

It also tends to have news reports from the 'enemy' point of view with organisations such as al-Quaeda using it as the first international forum for their views before it gets passed to Reuters etc.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Tchocky

This "know your enemy" stuff makes no sense when applied to Al-Jazeera, whether taking it literally or figuratively.
Same goes for the crock about the Middle Eastern mind.

Oh, now i understand. Sorry, my fault that I overlooked that context. I had no intention to refer to that quote by somebody else. I was using the phrase in a strictly general term. AJ is a highly infuential news source in the Muslim world, an reports from the muslim world's point of view. Since you know that I do not see that civilisation as our friend (no matter if you agree with me or not), you may understand how i came to that statement.

[Frame57]

My families dealing with the "Sultans of swing" go back to the 1400's. Stories were passed down from generation to generation. When they invaded our land, they wanted people to become muslim, if that was fought against, then death was the ultimatim. The men were killed first for obvious reasons, then they fed the dead men to their families. My family luckily made it to MonteNegro as the Sultan could not get his goons to conquor in those mountains. I would like to think that they are a "religion of peace" but history has proven otherwise IMO.