The Wrong Al-Jazeera   August 2, 2006

A Republican operative distributed information claiming that Al-Jazeera has published an article attacking Senator Rick Santorum and endorsing his opponent Bob Casey. This was NOT true. The article in question was NOT from the official website of the Al-Jazeera channel. The official Al-Jazeera website is www.aljazeera.net The article in question came from www.aljazeerah.info which is not associated with the channel. The misleading information was picked up by various bloggers as well as the Santorum campaign, causing them all enormous embarrassment. Al Kamen of the Washington Post covered the error, saying, “Small problem. It wasn’t the Middle East-based news network — which has no ‘h’ on al-Jazeera — but rather a site based in Dalton, Ga. A Santorum spokeswoman said that didn’t matter.”

It does and should matter. And it would have been proper to admit the error.   ”Rick Santorum has reached a new low in gutter politics by trying to ridiculously link Bob Casey to terrorists,” Casey spokesman Larry Smar told the Philadelphia Inquirer. The paper quoted Santorum’s spokeswoman, Virginia Davis, as saying it doesn’t make a difference. “We thought we should share these kind of sentiments,” she said.

She should just admit they got it wrong. If they don’t, they will be greeted with skepticism when and if they bring real issues to the attention of the public, such as Casey’s receipt of $5000 from the world government lobby. 

We have been writing about Al-Jazeera for quite some time and AIM has launched this web site with information about the channel and its expansion in the U.S. What Santorum should do is join our effort to keep the English-language Al-Jazeera International out of the U.S. media market. He recently gave a speech blasting Islamic fascist terrorists. Now he should target their propaganda outlets, such as the real Al-Jazeera.