Political Coverage Galore? Not So Much...

By Matt Digby

md313208@ohio.edu

@MDigbyOU

This week has been disappointing with the lack of political coverage, not just by Al Jazeera, but by any network. With less than two months to go, this is when political beat reporters should be cranking out stories daily.

I mentioned last week that in the news business there are certain news stories that merit greater attention because they are more "immediate." There have been more of those stories in the past week (mainly the attack that killed U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens), but the election did not completely stop because of those stories.

As I'm writing this, the top story on Al Jazeera's website covers anti-Japan protests in China. Because the relationship between the two countries has a significant impact on the global economy, protests of any sort are worth monitoring. But many Americans do not understand or care about the political differences between Japan and China, so that is a turn-off.

About.com journalism editor and journalism professor Tony Rogers has written an article about the network's possible anti-American bias. There have been multiple claims that AJ has shown anti-American content; one reason AJ English was created was to help change Americans' perspective of the network. I haven't seen anything to suggest there is or is not any bias, but that might point to why there is a lack of election coverage.

Al Jazeera has received criticism in the past for a perceived anti-American bias. Photo courtesy Getty Images.

Should Al Jazeera focus more attention on the presidential election? Let me know what you think!