Iowa City wants Al Jazeera
by Paul Deaton
Johnson County, Iowa, where Blog for Iowa's editors live, is admittedly a bubbling pot of liberals in colors every shade of the rainbow. The conversation in some circles, is that our local cable television provider should carry Al Jazeera, which is, according to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “real news” compared to what we get on commercial channels in the United States. These discussions are evidence of how far out of touch some liberals in the ivory towers, pampered salons and watering holes of the People's Republic can be.
What prompted all of this is not Al Jazeera itself. Many Iowans have been getting part of their news from Al Jazeera for years. It took the ABC News report of Secretary Clinton's statement to wake up the sleeping liberals to the new “cause célèbre.”
So people, hook your dang computer up to the Tee Vee monitor, watch Al Jazeera like the rest of us and get over it. We are losing the battle of the air waves in the United States, Afghanistan and almost everywhere, while networks like Al Jazeera have been changing minds. The explosion of on-line media has changed forever how people communicate, network and heaven forbid, chat politely over crostini and brie.
The battle for people's attention is real and while cable television is part of it, increasingly many twenty somethings don't even own a television. The world has changed, and media with it. Outlets with corporate interests have developed patterns of news gathering that are sadly outdated and geared towards creating an audience that will generate sponsorship. They do great when covering a basketball game or making C-SPAN, but it ends there.
The argument should not be about what is on the tube, but about how we can gain an inroad with people in the United States and abroad when every progressive media outlet is under fire, under funded and out shouted. Folks in the ivory tower, can you hear us down here? ~Paul Deaton is a native Iowan living in rural Johnson County and weekend editor of Blog for Iowa. E-mail Paul Deaton
Blog For Iowa 
Paul –
As the writer of a letter to the IC PC suggesting adding Al Jeerza to the cable, I gotta ask some questions:
– Is this complete sarcasm? If so, well done! I often joke about the foibles of the Peep’s Republic (although I love them!) myself.
– If not sarcasm, why is it so perfectly circular in what it says? I see it was posted on Pi-Day Eve, but still, yikes!
– Is there really a conversation in some ivory towers about this? Where are those darn towers, anyway? Maybe having better stuff on cable would help lots of conversations?
– Does George’s Buffet qualify as a “pampered watering hole…..with crostini and brie…”? Just askin’ …. I do some deep polite chatting there at times, and need to know.
I like your blog and think you do good things: keep it up! But why eat your own? 🙂
Bob Libra
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Bob:
Thanks you for reading Blog for Iowa.
I had not seen any letters to the editor or print coverage of the Al Jazeera on Mediacom question before I wrote my article. Had I seen your letter, I would have referenced it in the article, and perhaps not taken you personally to task.
The post is based on information picked up during conversations I had in a couple of different circles of friends and acquaintances during the past three weeks… in the Johnson County equivalent of ivory towers, where I spend some of my time (perhaps too much of it).
As you noted, there was a jigger of sarcasm in the post, and I try to write my posts based on personal experience, not what I read in the media, so if it hit a little close to home for some readers, that is always my intent on BFIA. Hopefully the wound on this is not too deep.
Our conservative friends are always painting liberals as brie-eating, Prius driving, Coach bag carrying effetes, and while that is far from the truth, when I see something that occupies space, like the Al Jazeera question, that we could be using to protect the middle class, fight for the right to collective bargaining, protect the environment or do something to get back a voice in the corporate media, it is fair to call it out, and I will… why would we have the blog if we didn't?
In any case, I prefer Maytag Blue to brie and have never been to George's Buffet so have no opinion on that.
Again thanks for reading and commenting.
Regards, Paul Deaton
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