September 22, 2003

A STEP UP FROM THE BBC

Alan RM Jones spots the reason for Al-Jazeera’s celebrated “credibility” in a Media Workers Against War interview with Yvonne Ridley, the Sunday Express journalist briefly held captive by the Taliban:

MWAW: What do you think in general about the media's portrayal of the situation in Afghanistan?

Ridley: Well, for the first five weeks it was more or less a war without witnesses, so the Taliban and America could get away with murder, without anybody reporting it. We were relying on Al-Jazeera, an extremely professional outfit, staffed largely by ex-BBC people ...

Wonder if they’re hiring.

Posted by Tim Blair at September 22, 2003 03:14 AM
Comments

"the Taliban and America could get away with murder"...

Hmm. And I thought that war was two sides trying to kill each other. Guess not.

Posted by: Rob de Santos at September 22, 2003 at 03:32 AM

" We were relying on Al-Jazeera, an extremely professional outfit, staffed largely by ex-BBC people ...

Imagine the "truth"!

Posted by: Barry at September 22, 2003 at 06:13 AM

" We were relying on Al-Jazeera, an extremely professional outfit, staffed largely by ex-BBC people ..."

"relying", "extremely professional" and "staffed largely by ex-BBC people" in one sentence.

Everyone can go home now. The game's over.

Posted by: ilibcc at September 22, 2003 at 01:04 PM

" We were relying on Al-Jazeera, an extremely professional outfit, staffed largely by ex-BBC people ...

Um, let's try, "" We were relying on Al-Jazeera, the media mouthpiece of Islamic terrorism, funded by the Saudis and Dustbin Laden, staffed by suit-wearing, US and UK educated people to give the appearance of a well-run media group and cover up the fact they tacitly support terrorism and the murder of all Westerners".

Posted by: Bushy at September 22, 2003 at 03:40 PM

I reviewed the MediaWorkers site, with the thought of leaving a comment on the story. After scanning the home page, I realized there was no point. We live on different planets.

Posted by: Dave in LA at September 22, 2003 at 07:59 PM