In the NY Times, Professor Judea Pearl wonders about the effects of Al-Jazeera’s English broadcasts:
Still, with the growing number of social misfits in society, and the growing confusion between “information” and deception in the news media, the danger of fueling combustible anger in some viewers cannot be ignored, especially when pumped subliminally by well-respected Western anchors.
Let’s face it: when a terrorist attack is described as a “martyrdom” in a thick Middle Eastern accent, it can be dismissed by Americans as a peculiarity of cultural differences. But imagine the effect of the word if spoken in David Frost’s cultured British tones. This is why, even if Al Jazeera English waters down its alarmist content, it should still be seen as a potential threat: it will bestow respectability upon the practices of its parent network in Qatar, which continues, among other things, to broadcast Sheik Qaradawi’s teachings.
Judea Pearl is the father of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl (pictured), who was kidnapped and later beheaded in Pakistan in 2002.
