I've been following Al Jazeera since it's recent US launch, and they've been doing good coverage. My main news site now is the Guardian - I used to follow the Washington Post and NYT, until they put up paywalls, and now I ration my visits.
Today, Al Jazeera posted a commentary by Dan Froomkin, "Shutdown coverage fails Americans". I've read similar stories on Slate and Politico, and I'm sure there are plenty of others out there, but I do appreciate Al Jazeera putting a story like this up front and center.
I really enjoyed following Froomkin at the Washington Post during the Bush years. I felt he was great at ripping away at the BS and hypocrisy, but then at some point he left the path. I hadn't knowingly read an article by him in years. And this isn't a particularly remarkable story, but I'd sure like to see a hell of a lot more like this one in the media. So I figured I'd post it. Here are the first three paragraphs:
U.S. news reports are largely blaming the government shutdown on the inability of both political parties to come to terms. It is supposedly the result of a "bitterly divided" Congress that "failed to reach agreement" (Washington Post) or "a bitter budget standoff" left unresolved by "rapid-fire back and forth legislative maneuvers" (New York Times). This sort of false equivalence is not just a failure of journalism. It is also a failure of democracy.
When the political leadership of this country is incapable of even keeping the government open, a political course correction is in order. But how can democracy self-correct if the public does not understand where the problem lies? And where will the pressure for change come from if journalists do not hold the responsible parties accountable?
The truth of what happened Monday night, as almost all political reporters know full well, is that "Republicans staged a series of last-ditch efforts to use a once-routine budget procedure to force Democrats to abandon their efforts to extend U.S. health insurance." (Thank you, Guardian.)
Al Jazeera is doing some really good journalism. What I especially like is that they're not following the horde. They're doing national coverage, often from a unique perspective, rather than just chasing everyone else's story. The tone is often calmer or less dramatic than what you see on the rest of MSM, and the stories aren't queued up to maximize hits on the sensation of the moment.
It's possible that this commentary was intended to promote Froomkin's new project, http://www.fearlessmedia.org/. If he keeps writing like this, that doesn't bother me at all. And maybe it's not all that remarkable for Al Jazeera to post a critique of the false equivalency meme, since they're on the outside, and trying to work their way in.
But hell, I appreciated it, and I hope they stay on this path.