How Al Jazeera Translates “Fair and Balanced” into Arabic

I had to see this for myself to actually believe it: Bjornar Simonsen, one of Alejandro Cao de Benos‘s obergruppenführers in the Korean “Friendship” Association, qualifies as an authority on North Korea in the eyes of Al Jazeera. But just to keep things objective and balanced, Al Jazeera puts Bjornar up against … John Feffer.

You may not want to watch this if you’ve eaten processed meat or dairy products in the last hour or so, particularly if you have new or expensive carpeting. Simonsen, naturally, denies the evidence for the attack, and the host lets him drone on endlessly as he does so. Feffer can’t deny the evidence anymore, so he speculates baselessly that some rogue officer carried out the attack, subtly tries to shift the responsibility for the attack to South Korea, and questions South Korea’s sovereignty over the attack site (Feffer is wrong again; the attack happened just a mile off the shore of an island explicitly granted to the South in the Korean Armistice agreement).

Here’s a sample of Bjornar in action:

In the end, the third “expert,” a South Korean professor (surprise!) agrees with Feffer’s call for more payoffs dialogue, as does Bjornar. So there you have it — world opinion is unanimous!

Is it any wonder that Al Jazeera’s broadcast audience includes some of the world’s most misinformed and volatile people?