A lot of journalists today are also spies, government contractors, and members of political parties and cults. Journalists are not heroes. The occupation of "journalist" has been stained in most countries, and this is largely due to the actions of journalists themselves, with the exception of a brave few, who almost always end up dead or work as pariahs.
Journalists are not pure actors on the civic stage who have a disinterested outlook on political events and the forces that shape history, but political voices who abuse their medium and craft and serve as propaganda voices for a particular cause, corporation, government, or whatever interest group that pays them for their services. To view journalists as heroes is naive. Al Jazeera journalists have spread propaganda in Syria, Egypt, and Libya that have intensified conflicts and led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.
It is becoming harder to defend the generals in Egypt because they are only after power, and not just the protection of the country from foreign plots and internal instability. They are acting with hubris, and not with caution and wisdom. It is sad that they have chosen not to defend the civic qualities of the state and restrain its repressive policies. However, they do have a strong case against Al Jazeera.
The lies that Al-Jazeera spreads across the Arab world, especially in Egypt and Syria, are lethal. The remaining journalists who still work at Al-Jazeera should either resign, following in the footsteps of their more honest colleagues, or face the consequences for their reprehensible actions against the Egyptian people and the Egyptian state. Egyptians won't shed a tear for locked up Al-Jazeera journalists after suffering the negative effects of their propaganda campaigns in favour of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Title: Egypt arrests four Al Jazeera journalists. Source: Reuters. Date Published: December 30.
