Inside Cable News has published a very interesting critique of international news channels including CNN International and BBC World, with Al Jazeera coming out as more favourable.

In the critique, Inside Cable News said;

"This caused me to alter my perceptions of the international channels. I used to rank CNNI and BBC World as neck and neck in terms of quality. But then CNNI slipped behind BBC World. After The Maldives CNNI has slipped behind Al Jazeera as well.

"I was in the Maldives while Tunisia was in chaos and Egypt began descending into chaos and Al Jazeera was all over it with more live satellite reports more often from the region than CNNI and I found myself watching Al Jazeera more as a result.

"Al Jazeera is something of a taboo subject here in the US. It got pigeonholed early on as not being on the “US side” because of some of the segments it aired. After watching Al Jazeera for prolonged periods I feel that label is not an accurate description of Al Jazeera’s purpose as a news organization, particularly after what’s happened in Tunisia and Egypt. But that’s another subject for another day.

"Back in the Gulf War in CNN had a coming out party of sorts for how it dominated coverage of the war. The playing field evened out with the Iraq War as MSNBC and FNC matched CNN’s level of coverage. But with Tunisia and Egypt you would see Al Jazeera is now having the kind of moment CNN had twenty years ago. Well you would see it if you could get Al Jazeera here. It’s little wonder Egypt just banned Al Jazeera today because of its coverage, one step further than Iraq went when it put handlers all over CNN’s people a few days after the war started."

Read more here.

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