Al Jazeera English & Al Jazeera America

I've been meaning to start a thread on Al Jazeera for a while now, but this is as good a place as any to ask.

My dad heard about the channel being launched and his immediate reaction was "I'm not having any of that on my TV" and I had to talk him out of complaining to Sky for planning to show it. His obvious reason for this reaction was the supposed links between Al Jazeera and Al Q'aida.

So, could anyone shed any light on these links? Do they exist? I've found no definitive answer anywhere, we all know that, whenever Al Q'aida have a message, they show it through Al Jazeera. Is this purely because they are there, or is there more to it than that?

If there were more demostratable links between Al Jezzera and Al Quidea, then a US fired rocket would have been put through the roof of the headquarters in Doha by now.

The simple fact is that in the Arab world Al Jezzera are seen as unbiased news broadcasters with a netural editoral view. They have no axe to grind, and will show videos from Iraq from the insurgents because in the next package they report on the latest press conferences from Bush and Blair talking about Iraq.

I'm still not sure though that broadcasting in English is going to gain a sympathetic reputation with UK/US viewers other than it still being an occasional mouthpiece for Islamic terrorists.

But wasn't that on the cards? I seem to remember a planned attack on the station's HQ which, in the end, never happened.

Also, will the channel actually be called Al Jazeera? I can't help but feel an English name would gain them more respect somehow.

Aljazeera International

Does anybody think that bringing this channl to London will also bring trouble/violence? It is a controversial channel and personally I don't want it in the UK.

About Felicity signing her Al Jazeera Deal on the day NC closed, she did appear very happy and relaxed on her final days presenting, making jokes (mind you most of them were).

Well, it did seem a little strange when this Lisa Knights came in; I'm glad it all makes sense now, although disappointed to see Felicity go.

I assume Lisa will be the main sports presenter now, unless the likes of Steve Scott or Jonathan Wills are preferred?

If it wasn't for this channel, most of Osama's videos wouldn't have been known about. It's partly through al-Jazeera the CIA and MI5 know what they do!

And how can you make a distinction between that and what she's normally like? You make it sound like she was coming to the end of her life.

Whatever

Well, I can't help thinking it'll be good to have an easily accessible channel giving a non-western view of world news - it's too easy to look at everything from a western perspective, after all.

I think it would be best to have as many views as possible - and anyway, if people don't want the channel, they just don't have to watch it.

If Al-Jazeera didn't receive the videos, then I'm sure one of the other Middle East broadcasters, like Al-Arabiya would receive them instead...

I'd hardly go so far as to say a 'great talent'. She's okay as a newsreader - but was dreadful as a correspondent (so much so she was stopped from doing reporting for ITN - and ended up on the NC as a sort of booby prize). Quite captivating visually though.

As far as Al-Jazeera goes - bearing in mind the huge number of ex-ITN people who are going there (and presumably Sky and Beeb too) I think it's likely to be fairly sympathetic to the West.