People outside the U.S. do not realize that the stories they get to watch on CNN International are often never shown at all in the U.S. We have a horrible domestic version of CNN that is nothing like the international versions.

http://www.livestation.com/channels/3-al_jazeera_english

Watch, digest and decide for yourself.

The BBC made a big to-do out of its coverage of India’s election, but after interviewing CEOs and shopping mall patrons, they were stunned by Congress Party’s landslide. Al-Jazeera’s reporters talked to everybody, and they called a Congress victory while their Western counterparts still thought it was close.

They also broadcast forums where Islamic scholars across the doctrinal spectrum debated issues like Women’s rights and got grilled by a crowd of Muslim women, as well as in-depth documentaries on the California budget crisis and a weekly look inside Iraq, which every other outlet has abandoned. A half-hour of Riz Khan was the only talking-head opinion show. I had forgotten such depth and variety were even possible for TV news.

I was inspired to visit their headquarters in Doha. They have a hall honoring all their reporters killed in action – covering the Gaza Strip when nobody else could, filming Fallujah after the Western media cleared out. They don’t just exude hustle, as Kaplan says, but also courage.

I could go on and on. Suffice to say, I enthusiastically agree with this post.