

Al Jazeera Announces Launch of Free Footage Under Creative Commons License - zby
http://creativecommons.org/press-releases/entry/12166

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rambo
I am just questioning the motivation of AlJazeera. I used the word propaganda
after reviewing the videos and headlines/content on their english page (which
doesn't differentiate editorials from news).

Some headlines off their main page :

Gaza Tragedy: Almost 1000 Martyrs, 4525 Wounded //the number of hamas fighters
out of 1000 is not given Israel hitting Lebanon with rocket fire //its obvious
they are responding to rockets Gaza now Israeli weapons testing lab? The
Afghan scam Ahmadinajad’s Christmas message Can there be any doubt who the
real terrorists are? So what have Gazans got to complain about? What is
Israel's goal in Gaza? Fighting Within Obama v. Washington mythmaking

There are a few balanced headlines but they are the minority. I also noticed
they specifically chose unflattering pictures of Western government/military
representatives. They even devote a section to conspiracy theories on the main
page.. come on.

I am not just some spammer i read the site a lot and wanted to offer my view
on why they are going with creative commons. Call it a conspiracy theory if
you wish.

~~~
dhughes
I agree, why this footage and why now?

Unless it's mandatory to, verbally or with text, say what the footage shown is
about there is no way to know what is going on. Context is important
especially with highly emotional footage of the Israel/Gaza conflict, a good
example is the video seen on Liveleak of a Hamas military parade where a truck
carrying rockets exploded, it was said to be an attack by Israel but in fact
was later found out to be an accident by Hamas.

Giving support to Creative Commons licensing is nice to see but not for
spiteful reasons.

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yters
Yes, the article is by Creative Commons, but it is not relevant for HN. I
don't want to squash these kinds of articles, but if we keep getting them,
it'll politicize the HN environment, which cuts down on dialogue.

I recommend posting such things on mattmaroon's www.nonhackernews.com.

~~~
thewileyone
I disagree. Like it or not, this is the first time that a news network has
opened their content for scrutiny, hopefully without editing which Al-Jazeera
usually minimizes, letting the video speak for themselves.

~~~
yters
I didn't mention anything about liking it or not. Explain to me how this
topic's pertinence to HN outweighs its politicizing. Haven't plenty of other
organizations released their content on creative commons? Why is Al-Jazeera
important in this regard except for political reasons?

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diN0bot
the more sides the merrier. i'm all in favor of citizen journalism and open
content from more organized efforts.

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rambo
It seems that they are increasing the reach of their propaganda by releasing
content about one side of the conflict.

~~~
palish
Holy -- what the hell HN? Let's get this guy's comment up to a score of -3 or
so. His comment is not a troll, it's just unpopular.

~~~
DarkShikari
If you look at Reddit, almost any comment saying anything positive about
Israel (or negative about the Palestinians) is downmodded massively. Enough of
HN is from Reddit that you're almost certain to get the same sort of thing
here, too.

Disclaimer to the downmodders: I'm not pro-Israel at all--I just think this
sort of downmodding the other side of an issue, regardless of the merits of
the post itself, is ridiculous.

~~~
ars
_Disclaimer to the downmodders: I'm not pro-Israel at all--I just think this
sort of downmodding the other side of an issue, regardless of the merits of
the post itself, is ridiculous._

Sigh, I was going to upmod you, and then you added that. That's EXACTLY the
problem! You shouldn't need to kowtow to the "popular" position in order to
not get downmodded! Wasn't that exactly the point of your comment?

You are basically saying that if people think you are pro-israel you will be
downmodded - that's disgusting.

~~~
DarkShikari
_You are basically saying that if people think you are pro-israel you will be
downmodded - that's disgusting._

But that's the entire point of this post--that's what happened right here in
this thread! People _are_ downmodding because of contrary opinions, whether we
like it or not.

By the way, I'm not pro-Palestine either--I would say I'm neutral, but it's
more of a case of "I could care less, and it helps me avoid wasting time on
useless flamewars."

~~~
ars
I know you recognized the problem. But why didn't you resist? Why did you add
that?

 _By the way, I'm not pro-Palestine either--I would say I'm neutral, but it's
more of a case of "I could care less, and it helps me avoid wasting time on
useless flamewars."_

I don't need to know your position on Israel/Palestine in order to decide if I
should up or downmod you. You are too used to reddit.

You had a good point, and again here, you should have stopped there.

Don't feed the people downmodding because of contrary opinions by posting your
opinion if it has nothing to do with your point. Yes there are _some_ people
doing that, but I think most HN's are not. Trust that they will do the right
thing, and don't encourage people who will do the wrong thing.

