“They became a typical regime station!”

"... ...“In other Arab countries, the channel was clearly on the side of the uprisings,” said Joseph Massad, an associate professor of modern Arab politics at Columbia University. But in Bahrain, “it pretended to be impartial while pushing the line of the Bahraini regime.”...  “They have lost their credibility in the Arab world, by either covering developments one sided — or completely ignoring them,” said As’ad AbuKhalil, author of the Angry Arab News Service, a widely read blog about media coverage of the Arab world, and a prominent voice among the growing number of academics and media analysts speaking out against the network. “They became a typical regime station,” he wrote May 7. “Their political agenda is not even masked.”...

The war in Libya, and the involvement of Qatari fighter jets, marked a turning point for al-Jazeera, said Massad, who monitors its broadcasts. Qatar was the only Arab state to actively join in NATO operations; al-Jazeera Arabic’s presenters called Libyan rebels killed in the conflict “martyrs,” and forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi were labeled “mercenaries.” “Al-Jazeera Arabic changed from the most important Arab media voice against U.S. and European policies in the region to a champion and an apologist for such intervention,” Massad said. As the unrest moved closer to Qatar, the situation became more uncomfortable for the government, and, critics charge, the network’s independence suffered. There was little coverage when protesters took to the streets in Oman and Saudi Arabia, close allies of the emirate, several analysts said. But the events on the tiny Persian Gulf island of Bahrain, a strategic partner to Qatar, best illustrate al-Jazeera Arabic’s dilemma in covering the uprisings. Al-Jazeera Arabic failed to report on intensifying demands by mainly Shiite protesters for the end of the Sunni monarchy in early March, critics say, and the network also neglected several large demonstrations that ultimately led to a military intervention by Saudi Arabia. Massad accuses Al-Jazeera of engaging in a “media blackout” of the uprising in Bahrain and of demonstrations in Saudi Arabia and Oman. The contrast shows that the Qatari government supports uprisings against republics in the Arab world, he said, but not against monarchies in the gulf... ... 

In April, al-Jazeera Arabic’s Beirut bureau chief, Ghassan Bin Jiddo, resigned suddenly, telling Lebanon’s Al Safir newspaper he had quit because of differences over coverage of Bahrain. He has turned down requests for interviews since then.  AbuKhalil, who is also an international politics professor at California State University, says Qatar’s rulers closely scrutinize the station. He said he spoke with the emir, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, last year about his criticisms and was surprised by how closely the ruler follows the channel. “He discussed individual journalists and anchors,” AbuKhalil said..."