Al-Jazeera opens US push | Bangkok Post: breakingnews

Al-Jazeera opens US push

Published: 3 Jan 2013 at 22.34
Online news:

The pan-Arab news giant Al-Jazeera bought Current TV, a failed US cable channel founded by ecology entrepreneur Al Gore, in a deal aimed at giving the Qatar-based broadcaster the scope to challenge major American TV networks.

Current, co-founded by the former US vice president, announced the sale Wednesday in a statement that was later confirmed by Al-Jazeera. The acquisition will allow the latter to reach millions more US homes than it does at present.The financial terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed, but Forbes reported that a possible value of $400 million could net Gore $100 million.The purchase of Current will coincide with Al-Jazeera launching a US-based channel, heralding a push for vastly broader visibility in American homes, on the back of strong US use of its existing English service on the Internet.And it will put the broadcaster, which is financed by the Qatari government, into closer competition with CNN and other US news channels, as Al-Jazeera is offered only by a handful of American cable and satellite distributors.Although Current TV has been struggling for ratings, it nonetheless reaches 60 million American households, according to its own figures."We are proud and pleased that Al-Jazeera, the award-winning international news organization, has bought Current TV," said Gore, the San Francisco-based channel's chairman, and Joel Hyatt, co-founder and CEO, in a statement.Al-Jazeera, in a separate statement, said its new channel would be based in New York and will provide both domestic and foreign news for American viewers when it is launched this year, and increase its existing US staffing levels to more than 300.In addition to existing Al-Jazeera news bureaus in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago, Al-Jazeera will open additional bureaus in key locations across the...

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Tomas Rybar

Discussion 5 : 04 Jan 2013 at 17.545
people are very confused. cnn, abc, nbc, abc is all same main stream media nonsense ... it is not an "American news" ... it is left wing propaganda! the only successful & good news in US is FoxNews! ... as far as a.j. ... they do not have a chance ... but let them waste their money

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bkk-farang
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Discussion 4 : 04 Jan 2013 at 07.534
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I gave up with CNN and other American news after 9/11 and the start of their wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Maybe they are better now, but at that time they had troop embedded journalists who reported the American propaganda from clean wars. In 2010 I checked what American news reported about the “peaceful demonstrations” in Bangkok and it looked more like Amsterdam PR instead of well investigates news.
Al-Jazeera reports the American wars very different and their reporting about Thailand in 2010 was one of the best.
Hopefully Al-Jazeera will help to educate Americans about the rest of the world – if they want to listen.
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bangmodken
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Discussion 3 : 04 Jan 2013 at 01.323
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Seems like BP has the same fear of criticizing or printing criticism of Israel like most other medias have. It's sad.
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ringmaster
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Discussion 2 : 04 Jan 2013 at 00.092
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I agree with D1, I like Al-Jazeera's news reports. They're informative and reflect a high degree of professional journalism at the same level as other news organizations. With regards to their editorial slant, people need to keep in mind that they are funded by the Qatar government.
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jacksprat
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Discussion 1 : 03 Jan 2013 at 23.031
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Al-Jazeera is actually a surprisingly good news source, as long as it is not about Israel.
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