[act-ma] NOT GETTING GAZA NEWS ON AL JAZEERA? THEN YOU'RE NOT GETTING THE NEWS. HERE'S HOW TO GET IT ON-LINE

[Roger Leisner]

WEB: Livestation offers live TV news of Gaza... & 'a view of the future of
the news'

[A recently developed web site called Livestation
(http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Livestation) has a simple downloadable
software platform that permits users to watch live television broadcast
from a large number of channels and in many different languages. -- 
Current live TV news channels include Al Jazeera English, France24 in
English and French, Bloomberg Television, C-SPAN, Deutsche Welle TV and
radio, Euronews in English, French, and Arabic, Russia Today in English
and Arabic, BBC World News, BBC World Service Radio, BBC Arabic, ITN and
CNN-IBN (temporary partner). -- The software is currently available in
an open beta for Windows, Mac and Linux. -- Social networking features
have been added that include the ability to chat with other viewers and
also find out what others are watching through a user generated rating
system. -- One enthusiast is Rob Kall, the publisher of OpEdNews. -- 
On Tuesday, he described Livestation in an article.[1] -- The Gaza
crisis is likely to catapult Livestation' s currency, since, as Kall
pointed out, "If you watch Fox or CNN or MSNBC, you'll mostly see U.S.
pundits or advocates for Israel or the Palestinians far from the action,
in the U.S. -- But Al Jazeera is carrying voices, images and stories in
Israel, in Gaza, in the Middle East and the U.K." --Mark]

http://www.ufppc. org/content/ view/8276/

1.

NOT GETTING GAZA NEWS ON AL JAZEERA? THEN YOU'RE NOT GETTING THE NEWS. 
HERE'S HOW TO GET IT ON-LINE
By Rob Kall

OpEdNews
January 6, 2009

http://www.opednews .com/articles/ Not-Getting- Gaza-News- on-A-by-Rob- Kall-090106- 140.html

There are routine, weekly reports on the decline of the old media. The
situation in the Middle East is highlighting that situation. The Networks
are falling further behind. The current hot, hot news in the world today,
the Gaza conflict, exemplifies this decline of the old media. The fact
is, the networks can't give you the best news coverage on Gaza. Cable TV,
for the most part, can't. But you can get it on the net.

Israel is blocking the world's media from entering Gaza. But Al Jazeera
TV is there, on the ground, in the midst of it all. You might think that
the story they tell would be propaganda, aimed at the Muslim and Arab
world. Cancel that idea. Al Jazeera is a first-rate, professional
operation, with ethical balanced news reporting, probably a lot more
balanced than you'll see on Fox News.

If you can't access AL Jazeera on your cable television, you can use a
service like www.livestation. com. This free internet website lets you
watch and listen to the news, on your computer. It's free and very easy
to download and use.

If you're just watching CNN, FOX, or MSNBC, you're getting a very limited
picture that leaves out a lot of the big picture. For example, all over
the world, hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of people in
hundreds of major cities are protesting the Israeli invasion. The U.S.
media have given these demonstrations minimal coverage.

If you watch Fox or CNN or MSNBC, you'll mostly see U.S. pundits or
advocates for Israel or the Palestinians far from the action, in the U.S.

But Al Jazeera is carrying voices, images and stories in Israel, in Gaza,
in the Middle East and the U.K.

One of my senior editors turned me on to livestation. com one or two days
into the Israeli attack on Gaza. I have no commercial interest in the
site except that I'm really enjoying the convenience of being able to
watch news online, on my notebook, without the need for a TV.

I realized the value of being able to access Al Jazeera when an Israeli
commenter on my site, www.opednews. com, one who was in virulent conflict
with pro-Palestinian supporters, admitted that even he was watching Al
Jazeera, in Israel, because it was providing the best news coverage. As I
type this article, Al Jazeera is showing a father holding his dead infant
child, outside a hospital. The child is not in a coffin because they ran
out of material to build them.

Let me make one thing clear. I am a Jew who supports Israel's right to
exist. I support Israel's right to defend itself against thousands of
rocket-bombs fired at it. I believe that both sides -- the Israeli
leadership and Hamas leaders are at fault and that the Palestinian people
are the victims, but they voted in Hamas and Hamas is their official
government leadership. One of those leaders, Nizar Rayan, several years
ago, sent his son to be a suicide bomber. To make peace happen leaders
need to compromise. I can't imagine a man who will send his son to commit
suicide killing civilians is capable of compromise.

So I watch the tragedy of fathers holding their dead children. I view
images on flickr.com of demonstrations all over the world. Just go to
flickr.com and type in GAZA. You'll see thousands of them. I've gone to
flickr because as a publisher, I can find images that the photographers
allow me, as a non-profit publisher, to publish, at no cost, if I give
them their due attribution credit. That's not great news for professional
news photographers, but then again, it may be good news for newspapers
hard pressed on where to save money to survive. For YOU, flickr is a
place you can go to find direct images taken by people who have been part
of the news.

The fact is, this website, livestation. com gives you a view of the future
of the news -- and that's online. Today there are whispers that Google
might rescue the *New York Times* buying it. I see that as a good thing,
though I'm not thrilled with the Giant Google's tentacles reaching to
another major medium. But I'd rather have Google buy it than Rupert
Murdoch's News Corporation, or Monsanto or GE or Halliburton.

Most major newspapers are facing tough times. Ad revenues are dropping as
stores and auto dealers and banks are going out of business. Some news
companies are making it, but the field of news and journalism is in a
major state of flux. At a time when the world is going topsy turvy, at
least it's good to know there are new solutions... and you found the ones
I described... here.

--Rob Kall is executive editor and publisher of OpEdNews.com.