Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Al Jazeera: I Can't Make This Stuff Up -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

I skimmed the article; will read it more closely later, but on first glance, pretty good reporting. I'm impressed.

I have to thank a reader for alerting me to this. I don't subscribe to Al Jazeera.  Maybe I will have to start. Smile.

6 comments:

  1. Al Jazzeera is Mideast, primarily Islamic but not "terrorist" per-se. It claims to be independent but gets quite a few "donations" from Midest regimes. so it tend to not want to "bit the hand that feeds". Basically, not a lot about corruption in the area, to give an example.

    They seem to have a slant a bit like the old communist "Daily Worker" where they try to focus on the "lumpen proletariat" (IE: "the people!"). For example, the sidebar to this article had a story about gentrification driving out both Jewish and Islamic low income in Israel. The basic story could be written about any gentrification.

    Anyway, a pretty good take on ND tribal concerns. Al Jazeera has a lot of eager
    and well educated employees who have the
    time to dig into a story like this one. They
    basically have the same internet that we do
    at least when it comes to general news.

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  2. That was my thought, also, about plenty of time to spend on a story. Over time, who knows, they may have more credibility than the New York Times.

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  3. NPR had almost an identical story, with the same slant.

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  4. It would be interesting to know which news sources you consider to be most valuable to you and why.

    In my news, the sources that give me "just the facts" as Sgt Friday would say are most valuable to me.

    Its getting harder and harder to know the facts if all one does is access "news" sources as most news organizations have a slant (some more than others) and every one of them "tend to not want to "bit(e) the hand that feeds". Sometimes it is obvious which hand is doing the feeding, sometimes not.

    Profound knowledge from factual reporting is crucial to me.

    Inaccurate or biased reporting may lead me to the correct decisions in some cases but if they do, it is arbitrary. My view is to improve the odds in my favor.

    If I make a mistake in any decision I make, at least I want to know that I had all the facts in front of me and I was not played for a fool.

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  5. I agree: hidden agendas, biases, etc.

    Which publications do I like best, why? Let me think about that for awhile.

    But without question, if I could take only one business publication with me to a desert island, it would be The Wall Street Journal. Even if I am not interested in the subject, the writing is generally very pleasant to read.

    In addition, it almost matches perfectly my biases with regard to business and politics.

    For oil investing in the Bakken, it would be the Rocky Mountain Oil Journal.

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  6. "In addition, it almost matches perfectly my biases with regard to business and politics. ".

    Hmm .... I like to explore sources that challenge my biases. 

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