Al Jazeera TV Comes To Mainstream America

 Discussion Outline: 

• How do shows appear on our television? Discuss how networks buy shows and choose what appears on our TV.
• Al Jazeera is a Qatar-based news organization.
• Map: Where is Qatar? Where is Qatar in relation to Israel?
• Why would a Qatar-based news organization want to come to America and be on our TV screens?
• What are ways news stations can "slant" how we hear the news?
• Some say Al Jazeera is known for anti-Israel and sometimes anti-Semitic reporting.
• For older kids: Al Jazeera gave Hamid Dabashi, an outspoken anti-Israel professor at Columbia, a forum for speaking his views about Israel (see http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/11/20121128105331462162.html)
• What "angle" does Al Jazeera say it's going to have? (Answer: International)
• Why would some American Jews worry that Al Jazeera is now going to be teaching Americans news about Israel?
• See this comment from ADL: http://www.adl.org/PresRele/IslME_62/6463_62.htm

What could be something new Al Jazeera can bring into American homes that isn't currently being shown? (Ideas: Middle Eastern shows, information about the Middle East, etc.)

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-al-jazeera-current-20130103,0,1409416.story