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Is Al Jazeera America shooting itself in the foot before they even launch?
It seems they are being told by their consultants to be more like CNN and not to report anything offensive to the PTB in our government and Israel.
AL JAZEERA
As Al Jazeera America Prepares For Launch, Dissent Inside The Company
By Alex Weprin on July 15, 2013 9:27 AM
Al Jazeera America’s launch is a month away, and as Joe Pompeo notes in NY Mag, it represents an extremely unusual event in the world of television: a totally new TV channel, not just a half-baked re-branding of an old one.
That said, the channel is already experiencing growing pains, well before it has launched. In The Guardian, Glenn Greenwald writes about internal strife at the channel, from Al Jazeera veterans concerned that the new venture will be nothing but a clone of CNN, or too obsequious to the U.S. government.
He also quotes from a long email from one of Al Jazeera’s most prominent journalists, Marwan Bishara, the host of “Empire,” sent to executives at the cable channel. You can read the entire email here.AL JAZEERA
more at link
As Al Jazeera America Prepares For Launch, Dissent Inside The Company
By Alex Weprin on July 15, 2013 9:27 AM
Al Jazeera America’s launch is a month away, and as Joe Pompeo notes in NY Mag, it represents an extremely unusual event in the world of television: a totally new TV channel, not just a half-baked re-branding of an old one.
That said, the channel is already experiencing growing pains, well before it has launched. In The Guardian, Glenn Greenwald writes about internal strife at the channel, from Al Jazeera veterans concerned that the new venture will be nothing but a clone of CNN, or too obsequious to the U.S. government.
He also quotes from a long email from one of Al Jazeera’s most prominent journalists, Marwan Bishara, the host of “Empire,” sent to executives at the cable channel. You can read the entire email here.AL JAZEERA
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/as-al-jazeera-america-prepares-for-launch-dissent-inside-the-company_b188197
To Rectify the Mistakes with AJAM
The next few weeks and months carry with them the daunting task of launching a new and successful Al Jazeera channel in the US. And we must give it our all to make it fulfill the promise of the mother company.
I started writing this email with bitterness and disappointment. But after taking part in the last week’s days coverage of Egypt and witnessing once again the wonderful way in which everyone seems to pull together and give it their best, am humbled by the efforts and professionalism of all involved. And after long and difficult discussions with our various colleagues including those with formidable responsibility both in Doha, NY and WDC, let me salute each and every one of you with no exception and including the ones I share serious disagreements. Your eagerness to make Aljazeera a success is formidable.
The following reflections are meant to contribute to rectifying some of the serious mistakes made over the last several months in order to guarantee a healthier launch and a more solid commitment to a potential American viewership.
Most of these mistakes, it seems to me as an observer, culminated because of a lack of communication, lack of consultation and the rush to act out of a personal ambition.
I had long decided not to interfere in the working of AJAM, but it has become clear to me over the last few days and weeks that some terrible decisions have been taken that separate AJA & AJE from the new channel on the basis of faulty and ill-thought assumptions.To Rectify the Mistakes with AJAM
more at link
The next few weeks and months carry with them the daunting task of launching a new and successful Al Jazeera channel in the US. And we must give it our all to make it fulfill the promise of the mother company.
I started writing this email with bitterness and disappointment. But after taking part in the last week’s days coverage of Egypt and witnessing once again the wonderful way in which everyone seems to pull together and give it their best, am humbled by the efforts and professionalism of all involved. And after long and difficult discussions with our various colleagues including those with formidable responsibility both in Doha, NY and WDC, let me salute each and every one of you with no exception and including the ones I share serious disagreements. Your eagerness to make Aljazeera a success is formidable.
The following reflections are meant to contribute to rectifying some of the serious mistakes made over the last several months in order to guarantee a healthier launch and a more solid commitment to a potential American viewership.
Most of these mistakes, it seems to me as an observer, culminated because of a lack of communication, lack of consultation and the rush to act out of a personal ambition.
I had long decided not to interfere in the working of AJAM, but it has become clear to me over the last few days and weeks that some terrible decisions have been taken that separate AJA & AJE from the new channel on the basis of faulty and ill-thought assumptions.To Rectify the Mistakes with AJAM
http://ggsidedocs.blogspot.com.br/2013/07/email-from-marwan-bishara-to-aj.html
Inside look at the internal strife over Al Jazeera America
As the new US network is finally set to launch, serious concerns arise about its brand and intent: especially from within the organization
Glenn Greenwald
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 14 July 2013 10.34 EDT
When Al Jazeera last December purchased Current TV in order to launch its own "Al Jazeera America" (AJAM) network, it seemed clear they had two general options for how the new network's brand could be built. AJAM could embrace the traditional attributes that has made Al Jazeera, at its best, an intrepid and fearless global news organization: willing to cover stories, air dissident views, and challenge power in ways that many other outlets, especially in the US, are afraid to do. Those excited by the entrance of a new Al Jazeera network into the US marketplace - and I included myself in that group - typically cited the urgent need for such an adversarial, bold and brave approach on the US airways from a large and well-funded TV news organization.
The alternative was that AJAM could try to replicate the inoffensive, neutered, voiceless, pro-US-government model favored by most US news organizations: as a way of appeasing negative perceptions associated with the Al Jazeera brand in the US. Those perceptions in some American precincts - that the network is "anti-American", "anti-Israel" or even "pro-terrorist"- stem from the network's coverage of US foreign policy (especially the War on Terror) that has been far more critical (in the best sense of the word) than most US news outlets were willing to be. For years, Bush officials fed this perception by accusing the network of being an anti-American source of terrorist propaganda. The US (accidentally, it claims) attacked al Jazeera bureaus on two occasions, killing its personnel. It even imprisoned an al Jazeera camerman, Sami al-Haj, for six years in Guantanamo without ever charging him with a crime.
Draining al Jazeera of its vibrancy and edginess and turning it into an imitation of CNN would be a way of trying to appease those negative views of the Jazeera brand. The target of such accommodation would be not only the parts of the US public which regard the network with suspicion, but at least as critically, cable carriers and corporate advertisers, whose willingness to be associated with the network is vital to its financial success, as well as US political officials, whom the network wants to appear regularly.
Because AJAM has not launched yet, debates over which course the new network has chosen have been mostly speculative. But one prominent Al Jazeera journalist, Marwan Bishara, the network's senior political analyst and host of "Empire", is insistent that the network has chosen the latter course of appeasement, fear and self-neutering.
more at link
As the new US network is finally set to launch, serious concerns arise about its brand and intent: especially from within the organization
Glenn Greenwald
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 14 July 2013 10.34 EDT
When Al Jazeera last December purchased Current TV in order to launch its own "Al Jazeera America" (AJAM) network, it seemed clear they had two general options for how the new network's brand could be built. AJAM could embrace the traditional attributes that has made Al Jazeera, at its best, an intrepid and fearless global news organization: willing to cover stories, air dissident views, and challenge power in ways that many other outlets, especially in the US, are afraid to do. Those excited by the entrance of a new Al Jazeera network into the US marketplace - and I included myself in that group - typically cited the urgent need for such an adversarial, bold and brave approach on the US airways from a large and well-funded TV news organization.
The alternative was that AJAM could try to replicate the inoffensive, neutered, voiceless, pro-US-government model favored by most US news organizations: as a way of appeasing negative perceptions associated with the Al Jazeera brand in the US. Those perceptions in some American precincts - that the network is "anti-American", "anti-Israel" or even "pro-terrorist"- stem from the network's coverage of US foreign policy (especially the War on Terror) that has been far more critical (in the best sense of the word) than most US news outlets were willing to be. For years, Bush officials fed this perception by accusing the network of being an anti-American source of terrorist propaganda. The US (accidentally, it claims) attacked al Jazeera bureaus on two occasions, killing its personnel. It even imprisoned an al Jazeera camerman, Sami al-Haj, for six years in Guantanamo without ever charging him with a crime.
Draining al Jazeera of its vibrancy and edginess and turning it into an imitation of CNN would be a way of trying to appease those negative views of the Jazeera brand. The target of such accommodation would be not only the parts of the US public which regard the network with suspicion, but at least as critically, cable carriers and corporate advertisers, whose willingness to be associated with the network is vital to its financial success, as well as US political officials, whom the network wants to appear regularly.
Because AJAM has not launched yet, debates over which course the new network has chosen have been mostly speculative. But one prominent Al Jazeera journalist, Marwan Bishara, the network's senior political analyst and host of "Empire", is insistent that the network has chosen the latter course of appeasement, fear and self-neutering.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/14/al-jazeera-marwan-bishara-email
I was looking forward to the gritty, show it as it is journalism, that Al Jazeera has done in their Al Jazeera English coverage. Because it would be more concentrated on our American issues, I thought we would have a good alternative to CNN and MSNBC. Instead if these articles are true, we will be getting their clones instead. Too bad. And I'm going to miss Current TV. In spite of their failure with the Keith Olbermann experiment, I enjoyed their programming as an alternative to the other news channels.
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If not that's a shame and I probably won't watch. 
