Zurawik: Al Jazeera ‘Excels in Covering Killings of Middle East Teens’

By Merrill Knox 

al-jazeera-america-carousel-largeIn his latest column, Baltimore Sun television critic David Zurawik praises Al Jazeera America for its coverage of the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank. “It was a complex and highly emotional story, and no one on American TV did a better job of telling it than Al Jazeera America, the new kid on the cable news block that will celebrate its first anniversary next month,” Zurawik writes:

It has been a rough year for the organization, with lower ratings than even some of its harshest critics predicted and layoffs in April. But if anyone with an open mind was looking for evidence as to how the presence of Al Jazeera America enriches the landscape of broadcast news and offers viewers the chance to be better informed about the Middle East, it was on display last week.

Al Jazeera America’s coverage was in full swing by 8 p.m. Monday, hours after the bodies were found. It featured correspondent Nick Schifrin reporting from Gaza City on the retaliatory air strikes by the Israeli Air Force. As always, the Al Jazeera cameras gave viewers a sense of being in the street as close to the action as anyone would want to be.

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