Wednesday, April 22, 2009
The Kansan sat down for a Q&A with Will Stebbins, Bureau Chief for the Americas of Al Jazeera English. Al Jazeera English is a global news organization that focuses on covering underrepresented regions of the world along with major world events. Stebbins said one of the main goals of the Al Jazeera Network was to rehabilitate many of the basic principles of journalism, which is to challenge the question power and to offer a platform for the voiceless.
Q: How would describe the difference from traditional U.S. media coverage to Al Jazeera coverage?
Will Stebbins, Americas Bureau Chief for the Al Jazeera Network's English language channel, spoke to the School of Journalism's International Journalism class Tuesday.
A: I think traditional U.S. media coverage is very much focused on U.S. concerns and led by what are considered to be U.S. popular appetites and celebrity gossip, which tends to not only dominate the news, but is also led to a reformulation of what news is. You’ll now find out who was the champion on the latest reality game show, which is now news and makes the headlines. Al Jazeera isn’t driven by those kind of concerns, and takes an international perspective on global events.
Q: How is Al Jazeera in America going?
A: We’ve certainly had some recognition here which we appreciate. Rachel Maddow on MSNBC basically endorsed us. We certainly see a recognition and I think there’s a better understanding of what Al Jazeera is doing. With the War on Gaza, many people realized there was another story to be told and that you really had to go to Al Jazeera to get the other side of the story.
Q: What is a story you have gotten a lot of criticism for lately?
A: For Al Jazeera English, during the election, we received a fair amount of criticism for a story we did at the end of a Sarah Palin political rally as we spoke to a number of people who expressed ideas that I don’t think people were used to hearing in U.S. media. It created shockwaves people were expressing openly racist sentiments and hostility. There were some that criticized us saying that we were attempting to show the U.S. in some type of bad light. We gave people the opportunity to speak and we put their unvarnished statements on the air.
Q: How valuable is the Al Jazeera news to the U.S.?
A: I think the news we’re producing from overseas is very valuable to a U.S. audience because the U.S. is very much engaged overseas and its critical for people in the U.S. to have access to a credible source of international news, so they can understand the effect of policies and decisions being taken in their name. It’s an opportunity to view U.S. foreign policy through the eyes of those on the sharp end of the policy.
Q: Do you think news here in the U.S. is sanitized?
A: I think here a great effort is made to ensure that pictures from Iraq and Afghanistan were sanitized and wouldn’t be too disturbing. Al JAzeera will always have an international perspective, but we won’t be overly polite to our audience. We won’t restrain ourselves because we’re worried about offending someone. We’ll make sure that we tell the truth as we see it. In order to tell the true stories of war, you have to show the pictures that illustrate it. We certainly don’t sanitize war.
— — Edited by Chris Horn
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