Al Jazeera English Bans Use of "Extremist", "Militant", "Terrorist", "Islamist"- Per Leaked Email Memo

ISIS-affiliated jihadists have claimed responsibility for the attack and car bombing of the Corinthia luxury hotel in Tripoli, Libya early this morning. The death toll varies, but it's around 9 or 10, with one American casualty.

Soon after the attack, Carlos Van Meek of Al Jazeera English sent out an email memo to Al Jazeera correspondents telling them they are not to use the terms "jihad", "Islamist", "extremist", "terrorist" or "militant" when referring to Islamist, extremist, terrorist militant jihadists. They want to "avoid characterizing people," because "one person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter." Right, because trying to establish an imperialist global caliphate is just freedom fighting. Beheading journalists, raping and killing Yazidi women, and keeping some as sex slaves is just freedom fighting.

BUT, it's perfectly okay to use the term militant when referring to people like Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, or Norway's 'mass murderer' Anders Behring Breivik.

National Review Online's Brendan Bordelon got his hands on a leaked copy of that email:

From: Carlos Van Meek
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2015 10:06 AM
To: AJE-Newsdesk; AJE-Output; AJE-DC-Newsroom
Subject: Terrorists, Militants, Fighters and then some…

All: We manage our words carefully around here. So I’d like to bring to your attention to some key words that have a tendency of tripping us up. This is straight out of our Style Guide. All media outlets have one of those. So do we. If you’d like to amend, change, tweak.. pls write to Dan Hawaleshka direct who is compiling the updates to the Style Guide and they will be considered based on merit. No mass replies to this email, pls.


EXTREMIST – Do not use. Avoid characterizing people. Often their actions do the work for the viewer. Could write ‘violent group’ if we’re reporting on Boko Haram agreeing to negotiate with the government. In other words, reporting on a violent group that’s in the news for a non-violent reason.

TERRORISM/TERRORISTS – One person’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter. We will not use these terms unless attributed to a source/person.

ISLAMIST – Do not use. We will continue to describe groups and individuals, by talking about their previous actions and current aims to give viewers the context they require, rather than use a simplistic label.

NOTE: Naturally many of our guests will use the word Islamist in the course of their answers. It is absolutely fine to include these answers in our output. There is no blanket ban on the word.

JIHAD – Do not use the Arabic term. Strictly speaking, jihad means an inner spiritual struggle, not a holy war. It is not by tradition a negative term. It also means the struggle to defend Islam against things challenging it. Again, an Arabic term that we do not use.

FIGHTERS – We do not use words such as militants, radicals, insurgents. We will stick with fighters. However, these terms are allowed when quoting other people using them.

MILITANT – We can use this term to describe individuals who favour confrontational or violent methods in support of a political or social cause. For example, we can use the term to describe Norwegian mass-killer Andres Behring Breivik or Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. But please note: we will not use it to describe a group of people, as in ‘militants’ or ‘militant groups’ etc.

Makes one want to slam one's head into the wall.

It's not the first leaked email to show just how biased the Qatar-based news agency is. After the Charlie Hebdo attack, National Review Online also managed to get a hold of other emails where Al Jazeera execs criticised the overwhelming global support for freedom of speech.

Maybe it's time Al Jazeera crawls back to Doha where it belongs.

Source: NewsBusters

Fake Deaths And Injuries In Egypt Aired On Al-Jazeera

No doubt there have been casualties in Egypt- that happens when two opposing sides engage in violence as they battle for power. But for a news outlet to stage something to further the agenda of one of those 'sides' is reprehensible. Raymond Ibrahim posted an interesting video demonstrating how some Arab media outlets do just that.

Al-Jazeera videotaped a scene showing a man bandaged and bleeding.  He looks like he is either dead or close to it. In the background you hear a woman screaming, apparently blasting the Egyptian military for "supposedly killing peaceful Brotherhood protesters."  We are to assume that this man was one of those injured or killed by the military. However, at about 8 seconds into the video below, as someone is about to lift the man's shirt to inspect what one would assume to be bullet wounds, you will see the 'unconscious' or 'dead' man raise his left leg and surreptitiously shove the person's hand away, while his eyes and the rest of his body remain immobile.  At :24 seconds the kicking is repeated several times.

How much of this is going on?

22 Al Jazeera Staff Resign Over Bias In Favor Of Muslim Brotherhood

We all know that journalists are supposed remain unbiased, but often are not. Same goes for news channels. But according to Gulf News a bunch of Al Jazeera based Egyptian journalists resigned, en masse, because of biased reporting in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The news channel Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr saw 22 members of staff resign on Monday in Egypt over what they alleged was coverage that was out of sync with real events in Egypt.

[snip]

Mahmoud said that the resignations had been brought about by a perceived lack of commitment and Al Jazeera professionalism in media coverage, adding that “the management in Doha provokes sedition among the Egyptian people and has an agenda against Egypt and other Arab countries.”
Mahmoud added that the management used to instruct each staff member to favour the Muslim Brotherhood.

He said that “there are instructions to us to telecast certain news”.

Haggag Salama, did the same thing on-air live.  Kudos to them.

Al Jazeera Posts Anti-Semitic Cartoon Inspired By Obama's Visit To Jerusalem

This charming anti-Semitic cartoon made its way on to Al Jazeera, that Qatari-based Arabic news outlet that Al Gore sold his Current TV to.

The cartoon was in response to President Barack Obama's March 21, 2013 speech in Jerusalem.

It is titled "Obama calls on Arabs to normalize relations with Israel."

The cartoon displays two historic stereotypes against the Jews. We see a representation of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ by the Jews but this time it is Mother Palestine on the cross. Hence Jews are again G-d killers but this time they are killing the holy Palestine. A sprinkling of blood from the figure and the obviously Jewish killer with blood on his hand symbolizes the classical Jewish hate theme of the Blood Libel where blood is claimed to be important for Jewish religious rituals.

The cartoon satirizes the words of President Obama calling for peace between Jews and Arabs. Obviously, the reader is expected to conclude that it is impossible to make peace with such a monster as the Jew.

According to Erik Nisbet, an Ohio State University professor who studies Arab media and anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism is woven into the fabric of al-Jazeera's Arabic reporting. Nisbet adds. "Unfortunately in Arabic political discourse there is a great deal of anti-Semitism."

Check out more Al Jazeera anti-Semitic cartoons on Fight Hatred.