For
years, I and other critics have argued that Al Jazeera, the newschannel
founded and funded by the government of Qatar, has earned a prominent
place in America's array of cable news outlets, thanks to their incisive
coverage of the Arab Spring revolts and war in the Middle East.
But no one predicted the channel would earn its foothold through
purchase of a floundering cable concern owned by a former vice president
of the United States.
Al Jazeera announced today it has acquired Current TV, the
liberal-focused cable channel funded and co-owned by onetime Vice
President
Al Gore. According to Forbes magazine, Current co-founder
Joel Hyatt sent
staffers a memo with the news earlier today, saying he had spent a week
in Qatar observing Al Jazeera's operations. The magazine
quoted a possible sale price at $400 million.
Hyatt
wrote: " it became clear to us that Al Jazeera was founded with the
same goals we had for Current: To give voice to those whose voices are
not typically heard; to speak truth to power; to provide independent and
diverse points of view; and to tell the important stories that no one
else is telling. Al Jazeera, like Current, believes that facts and truth
lead to a better understanding of the world around us."
Al Jazeera announced plans to scrap Current's programming -- which now includes weekday shows featuring former New York Gov.
Eliot Spitzer and former Michigan Gov.
Jennifer Granholm -- to create a new, U.S.-based channel.
Current
TV has struggled for visibility and focus since its founding in 2005,
beginning as a home for liberal-oriented documentaries and morphing into
a more left-leaning analysis and opinion channel than liberal channel
MSNBC. Hiring former MSNBC star
Keith Olbermann to lead a restructuring of the channel and relaunch of his show
Countdown didn't fare well -- Olbermann was eventually fired amid growing friction with executives, countersuing the company.
Al Jazeera has experienced its own setbacks in the U.S. cable market,
struggling to earn access to American households amid suspicion of its
Middle East roots and Arab-centric programming. Today, Time Warner Cable
dropped Current from its lineup, though Bright House Networks, which
often shares programming with Time Warner, still has Current in its
digital tier as I write this.
Al Jazeera expects to double its American staffing to 300 in staffing
the new channel, which will be available in 40 million homes even after
the Time Warner cancellation. Where this new channel will fit in the
axis of right-leaning Fox News, liberal-oriented MSNBC and non-partisan
CNN remains to be seen.
But anything to shake up the status quo in American cable news programming can't be all bad.
AL JAZEERA TO START NEW U.S.-BASED NEWS CHANNEL
Acquisition of Current TV Will Make Al Jazeera Channel Available in more than 40 million American Households
NEW YORK – (January 2, 2013) – Al Jazeera Media Network today
announced that it will launch a new U.S.-based news channel that will
provide both domestic news and international news for American
audiences.
The Network has won numerous U.S. and international awards for its
journalism and with more than 70 bureaus across the globe it has one of
the largest bureau footprints and newsgathering forces of any news
network in the world.
Al Jazeera Media Network also announced that it has acquired Current
TV in the United States and that the new U.S.-based news channel will be
available on Current’s distribution network when it is launched in
2013. There will be a transition from existing programming until the new
Al Jazeera channel begins to air.
The new channel will be headquartered in New York City. In addition
to the existing Al Jazeera news bureaus in New York, Washington, D.C.,
Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago, Al Jazeera will open additional bureaus
in key locations across the United States. Al Jazeera’s expansion will
double the network's U.S.-based staff to more than 300 employees.
Al
Jazeera Director General Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani said that the
creation of the new U.S.-based news channel and the purchase of Current
TV are historic developments in Al Jazeera's 16-year history. He said,
“For many years, we understood that we could make a positive
contribution to the news and information available in and about the
United States and what we are announcing today will help us achieve that
goal. By acquiring Current TV, Al Jazeera will significantly expand our
existing distribution footprint in the U.S., as well as increase our
newsgathering and reporting efforts in America. We look forward to
working together with our new cable and satellite partners to serve our
new audiences across the U.S. I am both exceptionally pleased and very
proud that we could take this very important step.”
Al Jazeera’s decision to create a U.S.-based news channel was based
in part on the fact that Americans have already shown a great demand for
its news and programs: Almost 40 percent of all online viewing of Al
Jazeera English comes from the United States.
“U.S. viewers have clearly demonstrated that they like the way Al
Jazeera provides compelling, in-depth news to audiences across the
world,” the Director General said. “Our commitment to the voice of the
voiceless, bringing stories from under-reported regions across the world
and putting the human being at the center of our news agenda is at the
heart of what we do. Everyone at Al Jazeera takes great pride in the
independence, impartiality, professionalism and courage of our
journalism. I look forward to bringing these standards to our new
American audiences and working with our new colleagues at Current.”
The new U.S.-based news channel will be the latest addition to the Al
Jazeera Media Network which consists of: Al Jazeera English, Al Jazeera
Arabic, Al Jazeera Documentary, Al Jazeera Balkans, Al Jazeera Sport,
Al Jazeera Mubasher, Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr (Egypt Live), Al Jazeera
Mobile, the English and Arabic Al Jazeera web sites Al Jazeera.net and
Al Jazeera.com, and supported by the Al Jazeera Media Training and
Development Center, the Al Jazeera Center for Studies, and the Al
Jazeera Public Liberties and Human Rights Department. As part of the
Network’s expansion it is also planning to launch Al Jazeera Turk for
the Turkish-speaking region in 2013.
The Al Jazeera Media Network is one of the most-honored news
organizations in the world. In 2012, it won some of the most prestigious
awards in journalism including:
• Franklin D Roosevelt Foundation - Four Freedoms Award for “Freedom of Expression and Speech”
• Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award Grand Prize
• Alfred I. duPont Award
• Columbia University Journalism Award
• George Polk Award for Television Documentary
• Foreign Press Association Award for Best Environmental Story of the Year
• Amnesty International Media Award
• The George Foster Peabody Award
• Scripps Howard Award for Television/Cable In-Depth Reporting
• Royal Television Society Award – News Channel of the Year 2012
Al Jazeera has won a wide range of additional awards (
http://www.aljazeera.com/pressoffice/2012/04/2012416161854868952.html)
and has been nominated for several Emmy Awards including an
International Digital Emmy Award nomination for its 2008 U.S. election
coverage. Al Jazeera has recently won praise from a number of American
leaders including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator John
McCain.
To learn more about the acquisition of Current TV and how to find Al Jazeera programming on a cable provider, please visit
www.aljazeera.com/america.
Join the online conversation by following @ajenglish on Twitter with the tag #AJEUS, and like us on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/aljazeera or watch us on
www.youtube.com/aljazeeraenglish.
