❊ Why Did Ghassan Ben Jeddo Resign From Aljazeera?

Assafir quotes “sources” on why Ben Jeddo wrote his letter of resignation:

The Chanel ended a dream of objectivity and professionalism after Aljazeera stopped being a media source and became an operations room for Incitement and mobilization

If you think you heard this before, it’s because you have. These are the same accusations that the Syrian regime and its hacks have been peddling on TV in the last few days.

Assafir’s “sources” (and one has to bring up Assafir’s history of making up news and putting words in people’s mouths) also mention — rightfully — Aljazeera’s shameful silence on Bahrain. But Ben Jeddo’s real anger appears to be with the coverage of Syria (or he would have resigned after the Bahrain crackdown began weeks ago).

All of this begs the question: Why didn’t Ben Jeddo quit over Aljazeera’s “incitements” in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen? To many observers, Aljazeera is not doing anything in Syria’s coverage that it didn’t do in Egypt’s or Tunisia’s. One can even argue that the channel was more gung-ho and much more sensational in those countries.

To answer, one has to look at Ghassan Ben Jeddo’s claim to fame: He’s one of the few journalists who has access to Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah. He’s the one who gets the “privilege” of interviewing him whenever the Hezb wants to make an Aljazeera appearance. That access, it now turns out, has strings attached.

This could all turn out to be a little publicity stunt by Ben Jeddo to make it clear (To Hezbollah, the Syrian regime and the Iranians) that he does not support what his bosses in Qatar are doing. After all, where would he go from Aljazeera? to Almanar?