Finally,
Al-Jazeera's English-language site is up. It looks much like any
Western news portal, with clean design, headlines in sectins like Global, Culture and Sci-Tech, special features and stock quotes, and has the usual broad spectrum of news articles you'd find anywhere, from
scientific breakthroughs to
Hollywood goings-on. Of course, there is a difference; when I looked at the front page, there were no fewer than eight mentions of Israel in the headlines, none of them remotely sympathetic. The criticism of U.S. policies and politics (whilst secondary to anti-Israeli sentiment) was also at a level that makes even the
Guardian, that favourite whipping boy of the Patriot Pack, look like CNN by comparison. Having said that, the stories seemed mostly free of polemic and did attempt to take a balanced look at issues, from a Middle-Eastern Arab perspective.
According to the Age article, the al-Jazeera English-language servers are located in France. I'm sure the neocons will have a field day with that.
The poll wasn't working. Check out the choices: Why did the US occupy Iraq? To control its oil To safeguard Israel's interests To get rid of alleged WMDs