“When Al Jazeera, the Qatari-owned broadcaster, bought Al Gore’s cable channel for $500m to gain a toe-hold in the US market, executives knew they wouldn’t “get the red-carpet treatment”. But the station’s experience in Britain – where initial scepticism gave way to critical acclaim – might have persuaded them that a similar feat could be pulled off in the US. No one foresaw “the level of hostility” they would actually meet. The channel launched last month with half the expected advertising after evangelical groups called on followers to boycott any product featured on “Terror Television” (or “Al Jihad”). Now a Republican lawmaker, Kieran Michael Lalor, has written to the bosses of the US’s biggest cable operators demanding they drop Al Jazeera from their basic packages, “or face commercial sanctions””. (Katherine Rushton, The Daily Telegraph).

The ignorance of these people is astounding! If they bothered to watch Al Jazeera and find out something about it, other than the fact that it is owned by Qatar, they would discover a TV channel that not only reports world news, but analyses it from every angle, They would learn that the staffing is safely Western and the coverage thoughtful. It is giving the BBC a run for its money in the UK, and subscribers actually learn something about the background to the news. In contrast, American news services rely on news agencies for their material, have few correspondents on the ground, and, (pace Fox News) the coverage is biased and full of personal views, irrelevant debate and comments from people with no international knowledge or perspective.

Al Jazeera is the best news channel to watch for those with open minds, that is, Epicureans.