Riz Khan and Al Jazeera News

I watched "Q&A with Riz Khan" on CNN religiously as a child whose father looked up to news reported like Riz Khan. In the last few years, Khan made a move from CNN to Al Jazeera that always intrigued me, especially since you can't find Al Jazeera being broadcast in the United States.

So I did some reading, and found a letter from Riz Khan himself on the Wall Street Journal, titled "Why I'm Joining Al Jazeera". If you have a few minutes, it's a good read (even though its from 2005).

I will quote a few sentances that struck the right note:

"Until now, U.S. administration-led efforts to promote a positive image of Americans to people in the Middle East appear to have failed miserably. A media push out of Washington into the region doesn't resonate well with those actually in the thick of things across the other side of the world. Al Jazeera International plans to be an open platform for global debate and dialogue. It will effectively become the best conduit the U.S. has to speak to the Arab world, and vice versa. Plus, the debate will be free and open."

That one paragraph makes adding Riz Khan to my Facebook a worthwhile move.

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