CNN & Al Jazeera

After reading up and watching videos from both CNN and Al Jazeera news stations on the death of Whitney Houston, there are many differences amongst the two companies.  When it comes to CNN, they seem to take the approach of using social responsibility when it comes to announcing breaking news to the public.  This means that they give information to the public that is needed to bring together buyers and sellers, helps to serve as the governments watch dog, and they focus on giving the public information needed for self-governance.  With this being said, they take more of an approach by making sure that they cover all details and they watch what they say so that they do not offend anyone.  This falls under the category of being the governments watch dogs and making sure that the public realizes that the law officials are doing all that they can in order to try and answer the public’s unanswered questions.  CNN made sure that they talked about what an icon and a legend she was and will always be and tried not to focus so much on her drug addiction. CNN almost tries to “beat around the bush” by trying to put things in perspective that will make the public feel at ease.  On the other hand when it comes to Al Jazeera news, it takes more of a libertarian approach to letting the public know about breaking news.  They assume people want to know the truth and they should be guided by it by having opinions freely expressed with own personal thoughts.  It seems as though with Al Jazeera news, rational ideas are most accepted.  I believe that Al Jazeera falls under thing category because after watching what they had to say on Whitney Houston, they did not hold anything back when it came to explaining her drug addiction.  Not only were they blunt, short, sweet, and to the point, but they did not hesitate to point out the flaws of her husband Bobby Brown and the violent marriage in which the two of them had. Al Jazeera news made it seem as though the cocaine and marijuana addiction that she had was almost her own problem and that she did not do anything to stop it. They did not seem to focus so much on her as being a popular musician, but more on the facts of her drug problem. Overall, the difference between CNN and Al Jazeera news is that CNN is something that would be more family oriented to watch.  They seem to give more reassuring facts and comforting statements about things that are going on in the world.  On the other hand Al Jazeera is straight to the point about the facts and what is going on.  That always is not a bad way, but it could cause a lot of controversy and angry viewers if they do not agree with the opinions that this news company portrays.