Tonight, my hubby received the following email:
From: Campaign for Democratic Media – democraticmedia@gmail.com
Date: Thu, May 28, 2009 at 5:00 PM
Subject: Canada needs Al Jazeera!
To:[name redacted]
Broadcast Diversity
We want Al Jazeera English!
Al Jazeera English is being considered for airing in Canada by the CRTC, the federal broadcast regulator. Tell the CRTC to give its approval to list AJE as an “eligible” service so that Canadian cable and satellite companies can carry it.
The CRTC has begun a 30-day consultation period when Canadians are being asked whether AJE should be allowed in Canada. Comments must be received by the CRTC no later than Monday, June 8.
Al Jazeera English is renowned for its high journalistic standards; for its fearless, unembedded reporting, including in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; for giving a global voice to the South; for speaking truth to power; and for its diversity of voices from around the world.p>
Tell the CRTC that you want to see Al Jazeera English in Canada.
Send a letter to the following decision maker(s):
CRTC Commissioners
Below is the sample letter:
Subject: Canada needs Al Jazeera!
Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],
I urge you to approve Al Jazeera English’s application to broadcast in Canada.
Canadians live in one of the world’s most multicultural and diverse countries. It is important for Canadians to be able to get the diversity of perspectives AJE offers in its unique mix of international news, current affairs and documentaries. Al Jazeera English has 69 bureaus and already broadcasts in more than 100 countries. AJE has more than 1,200 highly experienced staff from nearly 50 nationalities including more than 45 ethnicities, making Al Jazeera English’s newsroom the most diverse in the world.
AJE offers balanced news coverage and has been widely credited for giving a global voice to the South. The Canadian audience is internationally minded and in this globalized age, people want news from all corners of the Earth.
Al Jazeera English will open a Canadian news bureau if it is permitted to broadcast in Canada. This will make AJE the only international broadcas ter located in Canada making Canadian stories available to the world.
Al Jazeera English is acclaimed for its diversity and quality in journalism. Canadians’ communication rights, including the right to receive and impart information regardless of frontiers (Article 19 of the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights), demand that the award-winning Al Jazeera English be approved for broadcasting in Canada. Thank you.
Sincerely,
[name redacted]cc:
Campaign for Democratic Media
Ethnic Channels Group
Take Action! Instructions:
Click here to take action on this issue
Tell-A-Friend:
Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.
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What’s At Stake:
Al Jazeera English requires CRTC permission to be able to broadcast in Canada.
If it wins CRTC approval, AJE will open a Canadian news bureau, making it the only international broadcaster telling our stories to the world.
Al Jazeera English is acclaimed for its diversity and quality in journalism. Canadians have the right to receive and impart information regardless of frontiers (Article 19 of the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights).
Campaign Expiration Date:
June 9, 2009
If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for Campaign for Democratic Media.
Personally, I am torn… I am not particularly keen on the whole ‘Al Jazeera English’ getting any ‘official blessing’ from anyone.
At the same time, I reject the very notion that the CRTC has ANY jurisdiction over the ‘airwaves’: as such, lobbying them for – or against – anything would amount to a recognition of their jurisdiction, and thus something I find morally unacceptable.
Still, I thought this interesting enough to let everyone make their own minds up about!
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 
May 30, 2009 at 17:46
Hmmm. I have to agree with you about the role played by the CRTC. I think we should be able to decide for ourselves what we will view and not view. We don’t need big brother deciding that for us.
As far as Al Jazeera is concerned, I find it very hard to believe any network that hires Tony Burman and Avi Lewis would be anything but extremely biased left-wing/fascist BS spewing hatred. Would be good to test my theory. Did you read my blog entry on Tony Burman dated May 25th?
What I’d really like to see is each television viewer be able to sign up for only those shows that they want to watch and be able to watch them when ever they want and a pay per title basis. If a show doesn’t get enough viewers to make a go of it – goodbye.
Xanthippa says:
Interesting post you had on Tony Burman!
There is little question that Al Jazeera is nothing more than a propaganda arm of some nasty Islamists.
Not only has it hired some rabid anti-West journalists from the CBC, it has also done so with BBC guys…and, correct me if I’m wrong, but they even share offices, resources, news clips and editors with the BBC in at least one location…
And the BBC has been so thoroughly discredited, I don’t understand why they are still on the air. They have been caught editing stories AFTER publishing them to completely alter the meaning (as in, to say the opposite of what the original article said) and NOT NOTING that there has been an edit, they have been caught altering the background materials for their stories and had to admit it and apologize…the list goes on!
There is no question that Al Jazeera English will spew leftist garbage (and no, not everything ‘leftist’ is garbage – some bits are actually quite good…just that the ones we can expect highlighted here will be the ‘garbage ones’) along the lines of BBC and CBC…but with a definite Islamist and democraphobic slant.
I did not rant on it in my post because I thought this was a given… and was just surprised at the email campaign, urging people to tell CRTC to approve it.
June 9, 2009 at 08:14
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