As an American I utilize Al Jazeera for US news as well as news about the Middle East and the global south and beyond. I have relied primarily on Al Jazeera since January 2011. I was in Cairo when the students took Tahrir Square during the Arab Spring and told my husband and others in the US to watch Al Jazeera for accurate and timely reporting. In all the years that I’ve watched Al Jazeera, its news and commentary, political talk shows and interviews, as well as documentaries, I’ve never known them to be prejudiced for or against any state, non state actor, or individual. The reporting is representative of the highest journalistic standards. At this time in the US our own “news” has become even less reliable, media often failing to challenge the government’s narrative. US media has always shown tremendous prejudice in reporting on the Middle East both by commission (producing propaganda and abjectly false information) and by omission (not reporting on relevant events that contradict the government’s narrative, leaving out relevant information that puts an event in context, prohibiting their journalists from using certain words and phrases even when accurate and necessary, having “pundits” with known bias as experts while ignoring other voices directly involved, and using language and phrasing that obfuscates the truth).

I finally found a non-biased news app.. this has been a breath of fresh air because I was so tired of switching between the typical new sources like MSNBC Fox News and even AP… Each only offered a snippet heavily laced with their opinions and agendas often with partisan hatred and I’m just done with it.. I would rather just know what’s going on and come up with my own opinion. I see why our country is the way it is and basically that’s as simple as flipping on the TV and being told what to think. If you thought that was the right thing to do, you’re completely wrong and have been brainwashed. Sorry for this news. Lol.. I just wanted a play-by-play of what’s going on and found that on Al Jazeera’s reporting which is remarkably straightforward and clear they present the news as it should be: simple facts they offer timelines telling you precisely what happened when without any extra opinions or interpretations. It’s refreshing to finally just get facts and draw my own conclusions rather than being fed someone else else’s agenda. If you’re tired of the noise and just want to understand what’s going on in the world, Al Jazeera is the app you need. It simply reports the news and that’s precisely what the news is supposed to do.

As Al Jazeera is owned by the nation of Qatar, and as all nations use all their assets to their greatest advantage, no one should be unaware that Al Jazeera has a pro Qatari bias. That said, they also have a very strong “truth bias“. Al Jazeera is run by serious professional journalists, courageous ones at that. One need only take note that the Israeli government has banned Al Jazeera from reporting inside Israel to know that they must be doing something right. The last thing the government of Israel wants coming out right now is the truth. No embellishment is necessary to show people the horror of what Israel is doing in Gaza and the West Bank. as an American, I am ashamed that my own country’s news media, Save for a few shining examples like Democracy Now! and the intercept, are turning a blind eye to the truth, across the corporate owned political spectrum. I have found Al Jazeera to be a far superior replacement for CNN, who am I used to go to for all my news, before it became obvious that they were degrading as a reliable source for accurate information. in addition to its frequent updated top stories, Al Jazeera also has excellent feature segments and I am particularly fond of what they are doing in studio B.