THERE IS TROUBLE IN EGYPT
Feb. 2nd, 2011 02:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogBut you knew that. Even if you live in the US, you’ve probably heard somewhere between the Snowpocalypse forecasts and the usual political dithering that the Egyptians are revolting (insert Mel Brooks joke here).
I don’t have a lot to say about what’s happening there, the possible ramifications if and when Hosni Mubarak decides the jig is up, and the general role of the US in all this. But whatever the outcome politically, the big winner from all this may just be Al Jazeera English, whose live coverage is getting rave reviews.
So much so that they’re making the US cable news channels look really bad in comparison.
I can believe it. Obviously, being here in Hong Kong I can’t be sure just how much coverage the Egypt protests is getting on the main cable TV news channels (apart from the debate over whether or not Hosni Mubarak counts as a dictator since he’s an ally of the US and the US never supports dictators, so how could he possibly be one? See also: Hu Jintao). CNN, Fox News and MSNBC are all carried on the local cable providers, but I don’t subscribe to cable, and if I did, I wouldn’t watch any of them.
I do however, get Al Jazeera English for free via the SRO antenna on top of our building (which downlinks a variety of free satellite TV channels). And I have to say, the reporting on Egypt and Tunisia has been pretty good and pretty comprehensive, and they do a good job of explaining why this is happening, who the players are and what’s at stake without resorting to Indiana Jones analogies.
Some people have described Al Jazeera’s coverage the Egypt protests as a “Sputnik” moment for American cable TV news.
I wouldn’t go that far, if only because a “Sputnik moment” implies a sudden awareness that someone is suddenly doing something far better than you and you’d better up yr game to catch up because the consequences will be severe if you don’t. That doesn’t really apple to US cable TV news for a few reasons:
1. I don’t think any of the cable TV news channel execs think their coverage is substandard or would acknowledge that Al Jazeera’s is any better.
2. One reason for that is that all news outlets are audience-driven in the sense that they focus on the issues that they deem most relevant to their target audience – and Egypt arguably isn’t the kind of issue that most Americans feel is worthy of live in-depth coverage.
3. Most American cable TV subscribers wouldn’t know the difference anyway because (as far as I know) no cable operator carries Al Jazeera English.
4. Even if they did, most Americans wouldn’t watch it (which is why no one carries it in the first place), either because its editorial decisions are not America-centric enough, or because they think it’s an al Qaeda-funded plot to brainwash Americans into bowing to Sharia law.
So no, I don’t see American cable news channels being forced to up their game just because someone else is better at it (otherwise, BBC World would have already triggered a rethink). They’re doing perfectly well with the current formula of dumbed-down coverage, tabloid obsessions (I mean, could Al Jazeera have matched CNN for 24-hour non-stop coverage of Michael Jackson’s death? I think not) and news analysis shows designed to tell the target audience what it wants to hear. The only way Al Jazeera will change that is if it damages everyone else’s ratings, which isn’t happening (see Points #3 and #4).
Still, that’s not really anything to be proud of, either. So point taken.
The news you deserve,
This is dF
I don’t have a lot to say about what’s happening there, the possible ramifications if and when Hosni Mubarak decides the jig is up, and the general role of the US in all this. But whatever the outcome politically, the big winner from all this may just be Al Jazeera English, whose live coverage is getting rave reviews.
So much so that they’re making the US cable news channels look really bad in comparison.
I can believe it. Obviously, being here in Hong Kong I can’t be sure just how much coverage the Egypt protests is getting on the main cable TV news channels (apart from the debate over whether or not Hosni Mubarak counts as a dictator since he’s an ally of the US and the US never supports dictators, so how could he possibly be one? See also: Hu Jintao). CNN, Fox News and MSNBC are all carried on the local cable providers, but I don’t subscribe to cable, and if I did, I wouldn’t watch any of them.
I do however, get Al Jazeera English for free via the SRO antenna on top of our building (which downlinks a variety of free satellite TV channels). And I have to say, the reporting on Egypt and Tunisia has been pretty good and pretty comprehensive, and they do a good job of explaining why this is happening, who the players are and what’s at stake without resorting to Indiana Jones analogies.
Some people have described Al Jazeera’s coverage the Egypt protests as a “Sputnik” moment for American cable TV news.
I wouldn’t go that far, if only because a “Sputnik moment” implies a sudden awareness that someone is suddenly doing something far better than you and you’d better up yr game to catch up because the consequences will be severe if you don’t. That doesn’t really apple to US cable TV news for a few reasons:
1. I don’t think any of the cable TV news channel execs think their coverage is substandard or would acknowledge that Al Jazeera’s is any better.
2. One reason for that is that all news outlets are audience-driven in the sense that they focus on the issues that they deem most relevant to their target audience – and Egypt arguably isn’t the kind of issue that most Americans feel is worthy of live in-depth coverage.
3. Most American cable TV subscribers wouldn’t know the difference anyway because (as far as I know) no cable operator carries Al Jazeera English.
4. Even if they did, most Americans wouldn’t watch it (which is why no one carries it in the first place), either because its editorial decisions are not America-centric enough, or because they think it’s an al Qaeda-funded plot to brainwash Americans into bowing to Sharia law.
So no, I don’t see American cable news channels being forced to up their game just because someone else is better at it (otherwise, BBC World would have already triggered a rethink). They’re doing perfectly well with the current formula of dumbed-down coverage, tabloid obsessions (I mean, could Al Jazeera have matched CNN for 24-hour non-stop coverage of Michael Jackson’s death? I think not) and news analysis shows designed to tell the target audience what it wants to hear. The only way Al Jazeera will change that is if it damages everyone else’s ratings, which isn’t happening (see Points #3 and #4).
Still, that’s not really anything to be proud of, either. So point taken.
The news you deserve,
This is dF
