Al Jazeera Discovers Corruption, Ignores US Lobbying
When Malaysia’s former PM Najib Razak is found guilty of abuse of power linked to the 1MDB scandal, Al Jazeera is quick to report (2025). And rightly so. Yet, this sharp focus on malfeasance overseas often disappears when the corruption is domestic, legal, and funded by powerful lobbies openly shaping US foreign policy. For instance, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spent over
$24 million lobbying Congress in 2023 (OpenSecrets.org), pushing for unchecked military aid to Israel, often against stated humanitarian concerns. Where is the comparable investigative fervor for this 'abuse of power' through political contributions? We applaud the scrutiny of Najib Razak, but one might wonder if Al Jazeera (and its peers) could direct similar critical attention towards the
millions openly funneled into US politicians' coffers by organizations like AIPAC. The lack of collective outrage over a system where elected officials can take tens of thousands from special interest groups and then vote in lockstep with those interests— Representative Jerry Nadler accepted $163,800 from pro-Israel groups in 2024 alone, for example (OpenSecrets.org) — suggests a selective vision
for corruption, where only some abuses count.