Al Jazeera, a willing Saddam propagandist, inspires more fighting against US & Allies

The Qatar-based Al Jazeera satellite channel is “not a television news outlet but a propaganda tool” that “fails virtually every journalistic test.”

That’s what Floyd Abrams, one of the United States’ top free-speech lawyers, said recently at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

” target=”end”>”Having heard representatives of al Jazeera describe its supposed journalistic decisions and having seen many examples of what it offers,” Abrams says, “it is ever clearer that al Jazeera is, at its core, not a television news outlet but a propaganda tool, an entity that holds itself out as engaging in journalism but which fails virtually every journalistic test except pleasing some of its viewers by playing to their prejudices.”

That’s an amazing statement from a First Amendment lawyer. Not even allied military leaders have been so critical of the TV station, which is half-owned by the ruling family of Qatar.

MSNBC reports that the Iraqi regime is using Al Jazeera for propaganda purposes – and that Al Jazeera’s inflammatory bias against the US-led effort against Saddam Hussein is inspiring more people to fight Coalition forces: “Recognizing its usefulness in swaying Arab popular support, the Iraqi government has allowed the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera news network exclusive access inside Basra and Mosul in northern Iraq.”

The New York Stock Exchange apparently considers Al Jazeera to be more of a terror threat than a legitimate news medium, having kicked its reporters out of the exchange trading floor. The US would be wise to treat Al Jazeera as part of the terrorists’ politico-military infrastructure as well.