So the Taliban are opening up shop in Qatar.
That's to be handy to Al Jazeera, no doubt.
In this book Al Jazeera and US War Coverage by Tal Samuel-Azran, there's this summary of the potential issue:
In response to the allegation of ties with the Taliban, the network argues that the ties stem from their long stay in Afghanistan as they maintained a bureau there when most of the Western stations left. During this period, they claim, they gained the Taliban's trust. However, they deny any liking between them and the Taliban and argue that the Taliban still looks at the Al Jazeera reporter with a suspicious eye.
He concludes there's nothing to the charges that Al Jazeera abets terrorism. This commentary by Rick Francona also discusses the bias US officials found in this station that was the only one to cover military actions — simply because it was the last one left.
Remember all the storm in a teacup over the Taliban on Twitter?
Funny, I stumbled on something written in the lefty Guardian long before Sen. Lieberman took this up. They documented the actual Twit-fight;
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Re: Taliban spox on #Kabul attack: the outcome is inevitable. Question is how much longer will terrorist put innocent Afghans in harm's way?
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“@ISAFmedia i dnt knw.u hve bn pttng thm n 'harm's way' fr da pst 10 yrs.Razd whole vllgs n mrkts.n stil hv da nrve to tlk bout 'harm's way'
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“Really, @abalkhi? UNAMA reported 80% of civilians causalities are caused by insurgent (your) activities goo.gl/FylwU
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“@ISAFmedia UNAMA is an entity of whom? mine or yours?
I'll say "yours" for $64,000? But technically the UN is supposed to be "everybody's" and is supposed to be neutral.
UNAMA indeed reports that 80 percent of the casualties (up from 70-plus even a few years ago) are the fault of the Taliban.
The office in Qatar isn't supposed to be for PR or an "information war," but for talks with the US.
I suppose it will be interesting to see if these talks take place with media accompaniment.
So what's happening with those Twitter accounts lately? HT to @Esmatullah Kohsar who noticed:
@ABalkhi is still snarking up a storm at ISAF. and @ISAF isn't taking it sitting down.
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