No one Knows the Truth
The truth is hidden in plain sight. News networks, media, and many other sources report the same event with a variety of tunnel vision stances, causing viewers to overlook stances other than the ones they see. Taking a look at an issue such as the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001, it is not hard to see how different news outlets give off different impressions of the same event. Main stream news stations reported constantly about the attacks and how it affected America. With that much coverage about how America was affected, the responses from other countries was overshadowed. One international news outlet in particular, an Arab outlet from the Middle East known as Al Jazeera, provided a rather unconventional view. Being an international news network, the viewpoint they posed was bound to be strikingly different from the one posed in America. Americans rarely ever hear that version of the attack however. When Americans remember the attack, they remember it as mainstream media had portrayed it, and they are often blind to any other version the truth. What they don’t realize is that there were details regarding the events that they were never shown because they didn’t fit in with the stance main stream media took, but those details were still a part of the whole story.
Mainstream news dominates the air waves with its message. What a mainstream outlet, such as CNN or the New York Times, reports is the only message most people see. Very rarely do people see messages from smaller networks. Edmund Ghareeb, a contributor to the Middle East Institute, accurately depicts what Al Jazeera does when he remarks that Al Jazeera reflects “the views and opinions held by many in the area which are not reflected in mainstream media” (p. 400). Being a smaller network however affects how this message is perceived. Unlike mainstream media, the credibility of smaller networks is often in question.
Whether or not to believe a news network is a valid concern. Discerning the truth is rarely an easy task, so the concerns many viewers have about whether or not to trust networks such as Al Jazeera is well understood. This does not come as a shock because of the stance Al Jazeera often took. John Miller, a reporter for The Globe and Mail, pointed out that Al Jazeera’s “television crews were often in a position directly to contradict Pentagon claims” (p.2). This is an alarming issue, especially for those in America, simply because the options are to believe their government, or believe some far off news network which could very easily be lying. The choice of which version of the truth to believe is very simple at that point.
Not only does Al Jazeera have little support because of its conflicting views to American main stream media, but it is also looked down upon due to its content. Marc Lynch’s entry in the Wilson Quarterly talks about how people describe Al Jazeera as a “cesspool of anti-American hate” and goes on to say that “even if you were an American you would begin to believe that America was bad” (p. 1) if you were to watch it. Being such a small, far off network with such negative reviews from American people has made the support of Al Jazeera fall. With that falls the number of people exposed to Al Jazeera’s version of the truth on the attacks on September 11th. Even if a person were to hear Al Jazeera’s version, it is very likely that they would be able to relate to that version as they relate to the main stream views.
Understanding the different versions of the truth isn’t always easy. David Colterjohn, an editor for The Vancouver Sun, acknowledges that difficulty, but also shows how Al Jazeeraa goes about showcasing things to those with different views. He describes how Al Jazeera presents a “fascinating and subtle snapshot of how the Middle Eastern political situation is seen through Arab and Muslim eyes” (p. 1) by delving into the day to day concerns of ordinary citizens. By doing so, they enlighten the rest of the world with insights of how the lives of other people in the world are lead. Al Jazeera provides us with a glimpse of the viewpoint of the people whose voices are rarely ever heard. After the attack on September 11th, many Americans, and the rest of the world in fact, viewed the Middle East and Muslims as volatile and assumed that they had no remorse or sense of honor. Al Jazeera tried to change that. They showed the world how the lives of every day citizens in the Middle East are not far from our own. They changed our view of the citizens from heartless monsters, into ordinary people who fought for what they believed in.
The attack on September 11th was devastating. Every media outlet in the world tried to cover the story and every single one of them told that story differently. Americans said we suffered a loss, our allies said they stand in support of us, our enemies said they did what they had to do, but who was right? That question depends on who you ask. Understanding other versions of the truth is just as important as understanding your own version, and international news outlets such as Al Jazeera strive to spread the version that is rarely depicted in main stream media. When it came to the attacks on September 11th, 2001, on the World Trade Center, Al Jazeera told us the story of the attack from the view of the Middle East. Although that view is not what Americans had seen, it was not wrong. They just made Americans understand that although they were attacked, that was not the entirety of the situation, but rather, an entirely different story existed.
References
Colterjohn, D. (2002, May 25). How Al-Jazeera scooped the world: The TV station few had heard of before Sept. 11 found itself ideally placed to present a Pan-Arab perspective. The Vancouver Sun.
Ghareeb, E. (2000). New Media and the Information Revolution in the Arab World: An Assessment. Middle East Journal, 54(3), 395–418. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4329508
Lynch, M. (2005). Watching al-Jazeera. The Wilson Quarterly (1976-), 29(3), 36–45. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40233061
Miller, J. (2005, March 26). Which do you trust less: Al-Jazeera or Fox News? The Globe and Mail, p. 11.
