Museum in Maine to Honor Al-Jazeera (Rockland, Camden: credit, theatre, cities)

[BoxCar Willie]

American Revolutionary War Museum to Honor Al-Jazeera


WHAT are these fools thinking?

[namder1]

just one more step down the ladder for us.....

[maineguy8888]

Are they crazy?? Stark raving mad?? I'll check out Mr. Dufour (the board chair) as to his politics.....
This makes NO sense at all.
I'll never go there. Ever.

[mainebrokerman]

gov lepage should make a statement.. "what idiot made this decision"?

[Mag3.14]

What's wrong with al Jazeera?

[Zymer]

Originally Posted by maineguy8888

Are they crazy?? Stark raving mad?? I'll check out Mr. Dufour (the board chair) as to his politics.....
This makes NO sense at all.
I'll never go there. Ever.

That was my initial reaction too.

I've been looking at the 'honoree's' history, trying to see if that is an over-reaction. He seems to have held a string of less controversial posts prior to his current position.

From the museum's PR:

"The General Henry Knox Museum is proud to announce that the 2011 gala honoree will be Abderrahim Foukara, the Washington Bureau Chief of Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Satellite Channel, the Arabic language news network. Foukara, a Moroccan transplant to the United States, is well-versed in the history of the founding of his adopted country, and is able to weave that historical perspective into modern foreign relations.
He will speak at 6 p.m. on Thursday, July 28 on the stage of The Strand Theatre in Rockland, Maine. An intimate Gala dinner and reception will follow at 7:30 p.m. at Camden National Bank’s historic Spear Block location in Rockland."

From 1990 to mid-2002 he worked for the BBC (and between 1999 and 2001 he also was associated with Public Broadcasting and WGBH Boston). He began working for Al-Jazeera mid-2002.

Al Jazeera is owned by the State of Qatar, with primary funding from Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa, the Emir of Qatar.

Although Al Jazeera has been criticized as being "anti-US", they claim to be "independent" and, in fact, have had their signals censored, blocked and jammed by various Arabic nations (including one incident in 1999 where Algeria totally cut the power to several major cities in order to prevent broadcasts being seen by their citizens). Their programming is regarded as "controversial" by Arab nations as well, and has been credited with helping "propel insurgent emotions" during the recent uprisings by citizens against several Arabic countries.

Al Jazeera has a broad reach in Arabic nations, more than 50% of Palestinians watch it, and therefore is a powerful influence on public opinion. So, given Foukara's [claimed] knowledge of American history, and his position which may allow him to promote favorable views of the US and our method of government, I'll reserve judgement on whether this is actually a 'bad thing'.

[msina]

Correct Zymer, would rep ya but, gotta spread some first.

[DarkWolf]

They used to be a bad news organization = to Fox News , but the past few years they have changed. There the only News outlet that is not afraid to cover the Middle East uprisings and have been credited with pushing the peoples voices through Govt blockade. They do other Documentaries / News related topics and cover sports.... I think people need to research more before opening there mouth on topics.

[maineguy8888]

That's low, Nexis. I've been researching and following Al Jazeera issues, in depth, for almost a decade. Some of us are far more informed than you might give us credit for.

[Coaster]

Al-Jazeera has scooped U.S. MSM on several stories, including the lack of Congressional action on 9/11-related deaths among first responders in New York City, Wikileaks, and various oil-related issues. It's a legitimate news outlet, the CNN of the Middle East. Just because it has contacts among Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations is no reason to condemn it, unless we also condemn news media that have contacts among the mafia or the IRA or other criminal organizations. A-J operates from a different cultural perspective than Western media, and too often because it is Middle Eastern-oriented, people automatically connect it with terrorism.