Its formal appearance on August 20, 2013, went pretty much unnoticed or at least unreported by our local skewsmedia, but there’s a new player on the international news scene in the United States.
It’s Al Jazeera America. Call it AJAM.
Yes, there is a definite image issue AJAM must overcome. After the attack on September 11, 2001, Al Jazeera Arabic was clearly the mouthpiece for al Qaeda. It is owned by Qatar. Similar to NPR and the BBC, AJAM is effectively funded by a private charitable foundation, the royal family of Qatar. Still, AJAM’s staff is primarily from the United States, and most of them came from US news media (not automatically a reassuring credential…).
It will be interesting to see if AJAM can establish itself as an independent and reliable news medium among the many US skewsmedia who long ago walked away from any semblance of journalistic integrity in international news reporting.
AJE plus France24 are fun to watch. Sometimes it is good to know what others are saying. CBC (Canada) isn’t bad.
Comment by Mike Teague — August 25, 2013 @ 8:13 pm
Speaking of Qatar, I’ve heard rumor that a royal from Qatar may be attending the boat races this weekend on Lake CDA. Qatar sponsors an unlimited hydro that has won the world title in recent years.
Comment by Old Dog — August 26, 2013 @ 8:02 am
Mike Teague,
That’s a good observation. Since most of the AJAM reporters were formerly employed by the US media, I wonder how different AJAM’s perspective will be. Or will it play to the market and conform to the US perspective on international news?
Comment by Bill — August 26, 2013 @ 8:10 am
Old Dog,
That may be, but I want to put to rest the parallel rumor that the royal family of Qatar is going to buy Idaho.
Comment by Bill — August 26, 2013 @ 8:11 am
Isn’t this the outfit who purchased the network systems and licenses from Ex VP Al Gore?
Comment by Wallypog — August 27, 2013 @ 7:38 am