Iran Satellite Launch

To compare coverage of Iran's rocket launch on February 2nd, I examined reports from the New York Times and Al-Jazeera Engish. The New York times article was very extensive and included input from many experts (from Middle East experts to ballistics experts). It explained the story from many different angles, giving credit to Iran for accomplishing a feat, which few countries have done: "In the face of world opposition and sanctions, Iran has joined a very exclusive club."

It also addressed the major security concerns from many different perspectives. It included differing views suchs as, "Iran’s development of a space launch vehicle establishes the technical basis from which Iran could develop long-range ballistic missile systems," to, "the step represented no immediate military threat and no reason to rush the deployment of antimissile arms in Europe." The NYT article also included some detailed and technical information about the rocket as well as a brief history of Iran's rocket program.

On the contrary, Al-Jazeera's article was very short, not detailed, and was based on a single theme: fear. It did not mention the significance of Iran's actual technological accomplishment and gave no detail on the rocket or how advanced it was. The only perspective it gave on the security concerns was that the United States is very fearful of Iran's development.

It is true that the United States does not want Iran to have a more powerful rocket with warhead-carrying capabilities. However, the Al-Jazeera article missed the opinion of many that Iran is still far from posing a direct threat the United States and that it is still very limited in its abilities to threaten the West in general. Overall, the Al-Jazeera article was not very informative and was unprofessional. One would expect a more complete analysis, particularly from a news source in the region with as much clout as Al-Jazeera.