The Fault Lines of US Policy

Recently, Louisiana Justice Institute staffer Jordan Flaherty has been working with Al Jazeera English as one of the producers on their flagship documentary program Fault Lines. For several years, Fault Lines has offered in-depth explorations of the issues ignored by much of the media. Below is an announcement detailing the new season, which premieres tonight, airing at 5:30pm EST. You can watch Al Jazeera on your TV in several cities - including via Time Warner Cable in New York City and Comcast in Washington, DC - and wherever you live, you can watch it online.

After they air, episodes of Fault Lines are posted on YouTube and on the Al Jazeera website. You can also watch all of Al Jazeera's programming via their live stream, at aljazeera.com/watch_now/.

New Season of Fault Lines Premieres Tonight, Explores Drought in Horn of Africa, Unions' Declining Influence, Student Uprisings in Chile, and More

Al Jazeera’s latest season of Fault Lines premieres Monday November 28th, taking viewers beyond the daily headlines and holding the powerful to account, as the show examines the US role both at home and abroad. The new season launches as the 2012 Presidential election looms, and the fault lines in the US have never seemed deeper.

The award-winning Fault Lines will examine crises from the drought in the Horn of Africa to issues surrounding the upcoming US Presidential election. Subsequent episodes will examine America’s new approach to warfare, the decline of labor unions and the Chilean student uprising.

“The entire world is on edge and no one gets you closer to how the biggest crises are shaping up and what’s next than Fault Lines,” said Amjad Atallah, Al Jazeera English bureau chief of the Americas. “America’s role in how conflicts play out has never been greater and our correspondents take you inside the globe’s biggest movements. We’re very excited for the new season.”

Episodes include:

Crisis in the Horn of Africa: Warnings from the Drought Zone.- November 28th and December 5th
In a two-part series, Fault Lines asks how US policies intersect with drought, food insecurity and famine in the Horn of Africa. In part one, Fault Lines travels to Mogadishu to see the impact of Somalia’s famine, and asks if US policies have contributed to the disaster. In the second film, Fault Lines travels to Kenya to find out how US policies intersect with drought and hunger.

The Republican Race, the Religious Right, and the Tea Party- December 12th
Over 2 weeks, Fault lines followed Republican Presidential hopefuls as they campaigned in Iowa - to understand how the far-right Christian conservative movement is reshaping the American political debate.

The Decline of Unions in America- Dec 19th
America’s once powerful unions are locked in a battle for survival. Fault Lines examines the fight against organized labor, the fight back from the workers themselves, how it ties into the Occupy Wall Street movement and what it means for White House hopefuls in 2012.

Robot Wars- Dec 26th
The US Military has embraced robot technology to help it fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is now pouring billions into developing potentially autonomous robots that will be able to kill without human approval. Fault Lines investigates this growing industry of killing machines, and asks the questions: How can this be ethical? Who is benefiting? And what will the battlefields of the future look like?

Chile Rising- Jan 2nd
And as Occupy protests grow across America, Fault Lines travels to Chile, where students have been taking to the streets for months. The country has been gripped by massive demonstrations calling for a more fair distribution of income – in the wealthiest, but also most unequal country in Latin America.