BBC still the reference if it comes to credibility!
Below we discuss Al Jazeera, CCN and Fox News in turn. This produces a number of notable differences. There are sometimes major discrepancies with the BBC, especially in terms of credibility. Knowing how many millions of viewers follow these very popular channels every day, this is at least a dangerous situation. Because if false truths come to dominate, democracy will sooner or later be threatened. After all, populism and extremism are gaining ground. And 'anxiousness' is often used as a news ingredient. Distorting and/or concealing facts to strengthen one's own biased opinion does not contribute to better mutual understanding or a broader view of the true background of facts.
Fox news
Fox News posted an article 3 months ago about Belgium no longer allowing single men into shelters because they want to make room for women and children. So Fox news puts Belgium in a bad light. The news channel interviews certain people who say that it isn't fair that Belgium does not welcome the men and that the immigrants now have to sleep outside in a tent. They also interviewed an immigrant who was not allowed to enter. He talks about how hard it is that an immigrant who has been through so much can now not be helped. Fox news actually takes the side of the immigrants without understanding why Belgium does it. Belgium does this because they want more space for women and children. Women and children are more vulnerable so they are given priority. And on top of the asylum-seekers, Belgium is also giving help to some 62,000 Ukrainian refugees who fled Russia's war in their country. So it is even more difficult to provide shelter for everyone.
(Magali Maesen)
CNN
CNN is the first 24-hour news channel founded by Ted Turner in 1980. Cable News Network is currently owned by Warner Bros and sits under Discovery. On 11 September 2001, CNN was the first national broadcaster in the US to break into regular programming. It then broadcast hours of continuous coverage of the events in New York. CNN is known for its extensive coverage of world news, politics, technology, entertainment both before the events on 9/11.
But is CNN reliable now? CNN is reliable but according to reviews, CNN puts Republicans on the bad side, they started a smear campaign against Trump. They also have very biased coverage of the war between Israel and Palestine. These reviews describe that there are positive and negative reviews of CNN. Reviews point out that CNN distorts information or does not tell the correct truth. There is also only one side viewed or described, the side that gets the most exposure in the public or online world. When it comes to showbiz, though, CNN is a very reliable news channel.
From this information, we can summarise that CNN is a reliable news channel but sometimes articles are taken from it that are wrong, this is also how employees are fired. So that no false information can be spread.
(Zita Verhoest)
Al Jazeera (translation: The Island) is a
news channel originating from Qatar. When
the network launched on 1 November 1996,
Al Jazeera was broadcast exclusively in the
Arab World and later grew into an international
news channel with news items also being available in English.
Al Jazeera has been funded by the Qatari government since its beginning, although the channel consistently denies this and continues to claim that they operate independently. The news channel has also been criticized for being a very large sponsor of Palestinian terror group Hamas, accusing Al Jazeera of being an anti-Israel channel. Because of their background, Al Jazeera may have a reason to distort the truth to paint Israel in a worse picture.
On their website, it’s easy to notice that all articles about the war between Hamas and Israel only show the Palestinians' point of view and how Israel is killing thousands of innocent residents in the attacks in Gaza. In addition, there is also no mention of Israeli victims on the website. An example of these articles is about Israeli troops invading the West Bank, arresting hundreds of people, killing 2 people in a refugee camp, and then invading the camp as well (1). Here and there we get some more positive articles on Palestinian solidarity (2), but it is noteworthy that Israel is portrayed in the worst possible light on Al Jazeera.
Although Al Jazeera is far from the only news channel that does this, some other channels (for example: HLN) sometimes go on to show the Israeli point of view (3), unlike the Arabic news channel.
Al Jazeera certainly has articles that really are true, but as an anti-Israel channel, they sometimes might dare to distort or exaggerate the truth.
(Elly Onraedt)
