What does this mean for "AJ+", their SF-based social-tech-media-incubator-youth-mobile-blah thing?
Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April
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Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April
#62It's a sad commentary on the state of America's appetite for intelligent analysis when serious journalism can't compete with attractive talking heads ignorantly spouting talking points. Obama may have said that the increased political rancor was one of the greatest regrets of his presidency, but I think this points to how little of that was attributable to him. Though I'd be willing to bet that their name was half th…
I'm gonna bet that most of their american customers actively consume the website more than their divested assets.
Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April
#63This comes as absolutely no surprise at all. It doesn't matter if you are the most accurate, informed, respectable news source in the world, because almost no Americans know what Al Jazeera is, and the name evokes the image backdrop of a middle eastern city most Americans can't find on a map, discussing topics of primary interest to American Muslims and few else, while the female anchors are veiled. Not to mention it…
> They could and should have named it anything, but they really seemed to think their brand would carry any weight at all. I also wondered at the branding, but if they tried to hide their origins they would rightfully be accused of deception in a business, journalism, where credibility is paramount.
Isn't this the business where renaming your channel "sy fy" and broadcasting wrestling is par for the course?
Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April
#64This is a sad end to a line of good news services in the US.
My ex gf and I used to be regular viewers of Newsworld International. They showed excellent international news programs and a lot of broadcasts from CBC. We were disappointed when Current took over and watched the switchover as NWI's cast signed off the last time and Current started.
Current turned out to be pretty interesting. They were aiming for a younger demographic and were among the first cable networks to really integrate an online presence. It wasn't the same as NWI but had good things going on and we enjoyed watching. When I moved to SF I even worked there for a short period and got to experience the energy of the team at the time.
We used to watch Al Jazeera online too. They've always had really good journalism and frequently would have better coverage of American issues than any mainstream news media here.
When AJ bought Current, it didn't really make a lot of sense to me as a product. I think AJ wanted to make a move into American cable news, but the department responsible for that wasn't the ones handling their existing online English content. They wanted Current for the cable tv slot, in much the same way Current wanted the slot from NWI. I don't know a lot about the industry, but I think this is something like limited numbers of liquor licenses and taxi medallions in cities.
So Al Jazeera shut down the Current office here in SF and opened a news room in DC. They didn't do anything with the online presence Current and AJ already had, and actually made it harder to get the old English content here.
Now they're shutting down and so ends a line of good international news in the US.
Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April
#65This comes as absolutely no surprise at all. It doesn't matter if you are the most accurate, informed, respectable news source in the world, because almost no Americans know what Al Jazeera is, and the name evokes the image backdrop of a middle eastern city most Americans can't find on a map, discussing topics of primary interest to American Muslims and few else, while the female anchors are veiled. Not to mention it…
> They could and should have named it anything, but they really seemed to think their brand would carry any weight at all. I also wondered at the branding, but if they tried to hide their origins they would rightfully be accused of deception in a business, journalism, where credibility is paramount.
Kind of like how Fox News has news in its name but it's not news.
Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April
#66Good! now I can live stream the international al jazerra broadcast. They shut that down for US after the launch of this american channel
Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
This. Moving away from service chord cutters at this point was just odd. Embracing alternative media has done wonders for outlets like Russia Today (Though that's state sponsored so it might not be the best comparison).
> Russia Today (Though that's state sponsored so it might not be the best comparison) Al Jazeera is owned by the government of Qatar. However, I agree with you that it's not a good comparision. BBC also is state sponsored, but generally considered to be trustworthy. RT is propaganda run by a government that has propaganda as its modus operendi; I wouldn't trust their weather reports.
> RT is propaganda run by a government that has propaganda as its modus operendi; I wouldn't trust their weather reports.
So like NBC nightly news? The US is full of what can only be described as US government propaganda, 60 minutes is a prime example. CBS and NBC are no better than RT unfortunately, they just often tell Americans what they want to hear so nobody bats an eyelid.
AJ and BBC have their biases but at least they try.
PS - I moved to the US from abroad and was genuinely shocked not by the obviously ridiculous cable news (CNN, MSNBC, Fox News) but by the "news" pretending to be unbiased while in reality being a US government mouthpiece.
Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April
#68Good riddance.
If it was closing because of government intervention, censorship, or anything else like that, I would be fighting it, of course. But since it the main reason for the fact that it's closing is sincere audience disinterest, I'm pretty glad.
Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April
#69This comes as absolutely no surprise at all. It doesn't matter if you are the most accurate, informed, respectable news source in the world, because almost no Americans know what Al Jazeera is, and the name evokes the image backdrop of a middle eastern city most Americans can't find on a map, discussing topics of primary interest to American Muslims and few else, while the female anchors are veiled. Not to mention it…
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Re: Al Jazeera America to Shut Down in April
#70I'm sorry but why do people love a news organization that is funded by Qatar? People claim that they were completely separate but they weren't at all and gripped by controversy that one would expect from an organization based out of Qatar [1]. I think there are better sources for American and global news than what is essentially the media arm for the corrupt and fascist government of Qatar. [1] https://pmcdeadline2.f…
Because oddly, in their attempt to build credibility, or maybe because a completely different set of people ran the American branch or the organization, the American version of it was really really good. It spoke out about issues other new orgs ignore, had little in the way of sensationalism and focus on non-sense stories and celebrity scandals. I expected some Islamic propaganda, but it was shockingly progressive in…
> I expected some Islamic propaganda, but it was shockingly progressive
The Islamist/conservative propaganda is reserved for the Arabic speaking channels such as their main channel AJN. They usually adopt editorial policies and fit their narrative based on the target market and Qatari foreign government policy goals. So, in the Arabic-speaking market, they push reactionary and backward messages to accommodate their conservative Islamist audience beside helping Qatar achieve goals like the wars in Yemen, Syria or Iraq (Sectarian and Sunni dominant militant propaganda) while for its English-speaking channels like AJE, they adopt softer stance on those issue and cater more for the Western liberal viewer with local relevant stories and progressive takes on current affairs.
> They would also mention their campaign to free investigative journalists jailed by the Muslim Brotherhood run government in Egypt.
Sisi the military dictator who staged the coup in 2013 not the MB who jailed those 3 journalists and then reluctantly freed them after much fanfare.