@ajlisteningpost.bsky.social
The political media programme on Al Jazeera English.
On the show this week:
• The rhetoric Indian politicians and media are using to demonise and expel Bengali Muslims
• Israel’s PR campaign to deflect blame for the famine it is inflicting on Gaza
• Alex Shephard on Donald Trump’s war on press freedom in America
Watch ▶️ youtu.be/m-udJsQEu8I
“if anybody should be awarded for excellence in journalism, it is all of those Palestinian journalists in Gaza who have risked their lives to live stream a genocide”
– @dianabuttu.bsky.social on journalists like @Anas al-Sharif covering Israel’s genocide in Gaza
Full report ▶️ youtu.be/YeQD6spHyEU
On the show this week:
• Famine has been turned into a weapon of war in Gaza and journalists are as hungry as those they are reporting on
• The wave of post-war nationalism sweeping across Iran
• Ghana's most dangerous beat for journalists - illegal gold mining
Watch now ▶️ youtu.be/YeQD6spHyEU
Since its 12-day war with Israel, Iran’s TV channels, news bulletins and newspapers have been in patriotic overdrive.
@meenakshirv.bsky.social reports on the wave of nationalism sweeping across the country.
On the show this week:
• In a presidency rife with scandals, the Epstein crisis is in a class of its own
• New York Times finally uses the term 'genocide' to describe Gaza
• The crackdown on pro-Palestinian speech in Germany
▶️ youtu.be/AWp0DgSuP1I
“On Fox and CNN, their advertisers and shareholders want a pro-Israel line – and if they don’t get it, they will take their money elsewhere.”
–
@mjplitnick.bsky.social on the challenges major news organisations face if and when they report on Gaza.
Full report ⤵️
youtu.be/HAo3XwHUxHs
On the show this week:
• Netanyahu cranked up his flattery of Trump with a Nobel nomination but cracks are starting to form in MAGA’s stance on Israel
• The escalating criminality of the GHF in Gaza has prompted increasing scrutiny
• The political power struggle in Georgia
▶️ youtu.be/HAo3XwHUxHs
Many of the same operatives behind the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation - a joint US-Israeli venture - are now cooking up new plans for the Palestinians in Gaza. Details of these are now coming out in some key reporting.
@meenakshirv.bsky.social reports on the revelations in the FT & Reuters.
“The BBC does not have a backbone. It gives into influence from lobby groups, complaint campaigns and the government.”
Karishma Patel and Peter Oborne spoke with us about the BBC and its coverage of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Full report ▶️ youtu.be/ZjaEjI-G4CY
On the show this week:
• UK outrage as chant in Glastonbury is deemed too far, yet genocide in Gaza deemed not far enough
• Mainstream media goes all-in against Dem candidate for New York mayor Zohran Mamdani
• How anti-Palestinian abuse became normalised in Israel
Watch ▶️ youtu.be/ZjaEjI-G4CY
“Iran has behaved in a pretty pragmatic way through this crisis… the idea it is the most crazed actor in the Middle East is not the truth.”
— Séamus Malekafzali on how Iran’s actions have undercut its portrayal in Western media
Watch the full report ▶️ youtu.be/MUknejMSoak
On the show this week:
• Trump struggles to control the narrative on how much damage US bombs did to Iran’s nuclear programme
• Massacre of Palestinians in Gaza's aid hubs is becoming a bigger story
• Assal Rad on the contradictions rife in news headlines
Watch now ▶️ youtu.be/MUknejMSoak
Over the last two weeks, at least 169 Palestinians have been killed while trying to get food from aid distribution points in Gaza.
Nicholas Muirhead reports on the sites UN officials have began calling “death traps”.
“He doesn’t understand foreign affairs, much less anything about the Middle East…I’m not surprised the Israel lobby has got to him.”
– Chris Hedges on Donald Trump bringing the US into Israel’s war with Iran.
Full interview ▶️ youtu.be/a8dzL3biesA
“The Israeli argument is that the mouthpiece of the Iranian regime is a legitimate target to be bombed…would anybody consider [Israeli] channels legitimate targets? Of course not.”
Assal Rad on Israel’s targeted bombing of Iran’s state broadcaster this past week.
Watch ▶️ youtu.be/juxvNOwfSsI
On the show this week:
• How Benjamin Netanyahu set the stage for Israel’s war with Iran
• Israel’s military censors tighten their grip on local and foreign media outlets
• Chris Hedges on the media coverage of Israel’s war on Iran
Watch now ▶️ youtu.be/juxvNOwfSsI
In the same week that Israel waged war on Iran, it targeted and cut off communications systems in Gaza.
What might unfold under the cloak of a communications blackout?
@meenakshirv.bsky.social reports.
After months of political turmoil in South Korea, President Lee Jae-myung says his government wants to bring some calm to the country – starting by trying to ease tensions with North Korea.
@meenakshirv.bsky.social reports.
Were Israel’s strikes against civilian and military targets inside Iran this past Friday really “pre-emptive”?
Negar Mortazavi spoke with us about how justified that claim is.
Watch the full interview ▶️ youtu.be/i0JOlh6yZg0
On the show this week:
• Why did so many news outlets go along with Israel’s ‘pre-emptive strike’ narrative when reporting its attacks on Iran?
• Phone lines down, internet cut off. Gaza faces near-total comms blackout
• Trump’s made-for-TV federal intervention in LA
▶️ youtu.be/i0JOlh6yZg0
Another tortured round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations, another set of headlines laying the blame solely on Hamas.
Julie Norman and Tahani Mustafa spoke with us about the collapse of the talks and the media narratives surrounding them.
Watch the full report ▶️ youtu.be/pusIlN5bgHA
On the show this week:
• What explains the pattern of blaming Hamas for every ceasefire collapse?
• 'Operation Spiderweb' - a military push with significant messaging benefit for Ukraine
• How Gen Z are reevaluating their relationship with digital technology
Watch now ▶️ youtu.be/pusIlN5bgHA
This week's show:
• Will Israel’s allies do anything more than pay lip service to stop Israel’s genocide?
• For doctors in Gaza, the mission goes beyond medicine
• @jeremyscahill.com on Israel’s aid-washing and the “facade of humanitarianism to enable a genocide” in Gaza
▶️ youtu.be/Jgzli-g24TU
On the show this week:
• ‘Gideon’s Chariots’: Israel dispenses with euphemisms and intensifies the ethnic cleansing of Gaza
• Why has the BBC kept a Gaza documentary from airing for more than three months?
• The Pakistani military’s big PR push amidst a wave of nationalism
▶️ youtu.be/DKGKB4prpHE
On the show this week:
• Trump’s gilded tour of the Middle East as bombs rain on Gaza
• The assassination of Hassan Eslaih by Israeli forces
• Hartosh Singh Bal on India’s tensions with Pakistan and how the media are covering it
Watch now ▶️ youtu.be/SDcWwMf1KbE
Are Ghana’s courtroom shows going too far?
We spoke with George Sarpong, chief executive of Ghana’s main media regulator, Oheneni Adazoa and Zakaria Tanko Musah about the issues around these wildly popular programmes.
Watch the full report ⤵️
youtu.be/dqF5WkZ7-MY
Produced by Soumaya el Filali
On the show this week:
• Is Israel capitalising on Western media’s ‘Gaza fatigue’?
• An explosion of disinformation in India and Pakistan
• The questionable ethics of Ghana’s courtroom radio shows
Watch now ▶️ youtu.be/EGti9zZ-7oc
“Painting these almost cartoonish scenarios of how India is going to invade Pakistan is not what responsible journalism is meant to be.”
Sreenivasan Jain, Anuradha Bhasin and Swasti Rao spoke with us about the response in India to horrifying attack in Kashmir.
Full report ▶️ youtu.be/dR3Up90zYUg
On the show this week:
• An incessant clamour for war on Indian news channels since the Kashmir attack
• Pakistan's army dominates the country's messaging on Kashmir
• The man behind the memeification of cruelty by the White House
Watch now ▶️ youtu.be/dR3Up90zYUg
“Another way to say ‘move fast and break things’ is to say the ends always justify the means.”
Gil Duran, Payal Arora and Cori Crider spoke with us about the long-term impact of Facebook’s infamous philosophy.
Watch ‘How technocracy has become our reality’
▶️ youtu.be/7oW_HdegO-U
