Video: Hillary Clinton: Al Jazeera Is “Real News”

Perhaps following the lead of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Juliette Kayyem, who urged cable providers to carry al Jazeera in her recent oped, “Let us see Al-Jazeera”, Sec of State Hillary Clinton is now favorably comparing  the Arab news network to American News networks.

Via TV Newser:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton put on her media criticism cap yesterday, praising coverage of the Middle East from Al Jazeera, while saying that the U.S. was losing the “information war” abroad.

“In fact viewership of Al Jazeera is going up in the United States because it’s real news,” Clinton said. “You may not agree with it, but you feel like you’re getting real news around the clock instead of a million commercials and, you know, arguments between talking heads and the kind of stuff that we do on our news which, you know, is not particularly informative to us, let alone foreigners.”

Some  information about al Jazeera you may not know, but Sec. Clinton certainly should certainly know, via Discover The Networks:

• Arabic television station and satellite network launched in 1996, funded by Emir of Qatar
• Known as the “CNN of the Arab world” and “Jihad TV,” it claims to have 50 million viewers
• Osama bin Laden’s outlet for video messages
• Its Spanish reporter was arrested for terrorist ties to bin Laden’s Al Qaeda
• At least two of its Iraqi reporters and one executive had secret connections with, and apparently worked for, Saddam Hussein’s intelligence service
• Praised Democratic candidate John Kerry and did positive reporting from 2004 Democratic National Convention
• Gave airtime to racist David Duke to claim that Jews knew in advance of 9-11 attack on World Trade Center and stayed away
• Described Islamist suicide-homocide bombers in Israel as “martyrs”

Al Jazeera routinely has described Islamist suicide-homocide bombers in Israel as “martyrs,” and Palestinians as Israel’s victims. Its newscasts and on-air discussions are staged to show its 50 million mostly-Muslim viewers a relentlessly visceral, emotion-charged drama in which Jews, Israel and Americans are almost always cast as villains, infidels and evil-doers.

“Al Jazeera has an editorial line and a way of presenting news that appeals to the Arab public,” said U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in 2003. “They tend to portray [U.S.] efforts [in Iraq] in a negative light.”

“You don’t have to look too closely to find that Al Jazeera also inhabits the far side of the ideological moon,” wrote Wolff, “and is as responsible for the region’s departures from reality as anyone.” By amplifying the views of terrorists, giving a one-sided view of bloodshed in the Middle East, and encouraging both fear and loathing, Al Jazeera has at a minimum abetted terrorism. At a maximum, Al Jazeera’s reporters and executives have crossed the line between commentary and complicity by working hand-in-glove with terrorists.

The American Thinker reported a story in 2007 that would seem to indicate Clinton’s susceptibility to Arab propaganda:

In 1999 Suha Arafat, Yasser Arafat’s wife, said, “Our [Palestinian] people have been submitted to the daily and intensive use of poisonous gas by the Israeli forces, which has led to an increase in cancer cases among women and children.”
Although Hillary Clinton was sitting on the same stage and receiving a simultaneous translation of Mrs. Arafat’s speech, she sat silent.

When the speech was finished the First Lady stood up and walked over to Suha Arafat. Hillary Clinton’s response to the accusation that Israel was using poison gas?

A kiss and a hug for Mrs. Arafat.

UPDATE:

The Blaze: Beck Calls Sec. Clinton’s Promoting Al Jazeera, ‘Insanity’