I don't watch it anyway, so....
"American Al-Jazeera channel shifts focus to US" by Brian Stelter | New York Times, May 27, 2013
NEW YORK — While it has a foreign name, the forthcoming Al-Jazeera cable channel in the United States wants to be American through and through.
When Al-Jazeera’s owners in Qatar acquired Al Gore’s Current TV in January, they said that Current would be replaced by Al-Jazeera America, an international news channel with 60 percent new programming from the United States. The remaining 40 percent, they said, would come from Al-Jazeera English, their news channel in Doha, Qatar, that is available in much of the rest of the world.
That plan is no more. Now Al-Jazeera America is aiming to have virtually all of its programming originate from the United States, according to staff members and others associated with the channel who were interviewed in recent weeks. It will, in other words, operate much like CNN (though the employees say they won’t be as sensational) and Fox News (though they say they won’t be opinion-driven).
That explains my lack of interest.
The programming strategy is partly a bid to gain acceptance and give Americans a reason to tune in. It may help explain why Al-Jazeera America’s start date has been delayed once already, to August from July, and why some employees predict it will be delayed again....
The Arabic-language Al-Jazeera was condemned by the US government a decade ago for broadcasting videotapes from Osama bin Laden and other materials deemed to be terrorist propaganda.
What a laugh since it is the U.S. government behind all of that.
Others have criticized the Arabic and English channels for being a mouthpiece for Qatar, though the channel’s representatives insist that is not the case.
My AmeriKan media is a mouthpiece for Israel (and bankers).
Other questions about bias persist; as recently as last week, the Al-Jazeera website was accused of publishing an anti-Semitic article by a guest columnist.
Maybe I will start watching!
But some Al-Jazeera America staff members are already rehearsing with mock newscasts.
How can you tell the difference after all the staged and scripted events I've seen broadcast as "real?"
Others are fanning out to report news stories from parts of the country rarely visited by camera crews. Still others are setting up new studios in New York, where the channel will have a home inside the New Yorker Hotel, and in Washington, where it will take over space previously occupied by ABC at the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue....
And yet not one broadcast yet.
--more--"
Too late. I changed the channel.
