Lateral Move
“Al Jazeera is putting the final touches on a deal to take over Current TV, the low-rated cable channel that was founded by Al Gore and his business partners seven years ago,” the New York Times claims:
If the deal is completed, Current will provide the pan-Arab news giant with something it has sought for years: a pathway into American living rooms. Current is available in about 60 million of the 100 million homes in the United States with cable or satellite service.
Rather than simply use Current to distribute its English-language channel, called Al Jazeera English and based in Doha, Qatar, Al Jazeera will create a new channel based in New York, according to people with knowledge of the deal negotiations. The channel may be called Al Jazeera America. Roughly 60 percent of the programming will be produced in the United States, while the remaining 40 percent will come from Al Jazeera English.
Al Jazeera may absorb some Current TV staff members, according to the people, who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. But Current’s schedule of shows will most likely be dissolved in the spring.
The plan will bring Al Jazeera, which is financed by the government of Qatar, into closer competition with CNN and other news channels in the United States.
“But-but-but, wherever will failed and disgraced Democrat governors go to find work?”, Breitbart News quips.
I suspect they’d certainly feel at home there, as England’s David Frost did, when he made his own lateral move, leaving the BBC for Al Jazeera back in 2005.
Similarly, this headline at Free Republic from April could be remarkably prescient: “Keith Olbermann: Machine Gun for Hire (Next stop: Al Jazeera?)”
Not surprisingly, Twitter is having lots of fun with this news, including hashtags such as “#CurrentAlJazeeraShowPitches” and comments such as this:
So it will become more pro-Israel? // Al Jazeera is finalizing a deal to take over Current TV. nyti.ms/VvhxMe
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) January 2, 2013
Update: “I really don’t like the idea of an extremist propaganda outlet that seeks the destruction of America airing on U.S. cable. Fortunately, sounds like Al Jazeera’s about to get rid of it,” Allahpundit deadpans.
More: Done deal? “AP Says It’s Official: Muslim Network Devours ManBearPig.”
In other words, Current TV to become less anti-American.
Al Jazeera has an anti-US, anti-Israel bias, and a distinct affinity for Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network. After news broke announcing Al Jazeera had bought Al Gore’s Current TV, Time Warner immediately issued a statement saying it would drop Current TV from its lineup as quickly as possible.
Al Gore has demonstrated he cares more about “money” than he does about ethical behavior or his own country for that matter. Al Jazeera’s radical and terrorist supporting network will now reach millions of homes in America after Gore decided to sell out his own country to make a quick buck. Al Gore has made it very obvious he is only in it for the money and his debunked Global Warming scam proves he will lie, cheat and steal to become wealthy. “Ill-gotten gains do not profit.” Proverbs 10:2
Al Gore has demonstrated he cares more about “money” than he does about ethical behavior or his own country for that matter.
The same as at least 95% of all politicians.
Al Gore should loose his American citizenship. He sold out the US media to Qatar, an Islam enemy of the US that believes in Sharia law. I cannot understand how the FCC would allow this sale to go through. This sale should be denied. We do not need “Tokyo Rose” media, anti American, Pro Arab and Sharia, in this country. Gore is a disgrace and should immediately move to Qatar. He is a hypocrite and “Benedict Arnold” who should immediately loose his American citizenship. And the FCC should be disbanded if they cannot break the reins of this sale. If not, they are a useless agency. We do not need propoganda media in the US. We have already had a taste of this with the destruction of the World Trade Center.
So why don’t conservatives ever do anything like this? Instead of just talking big on the internet or radio? There’s like 10 news channels, 9 of which are liberal.
I have been wondering that too. Unless, maybe, conservatives actually like being the minority, and just like to complain about the biased media.
The test I apply in cases like this is to ask this question: What would they be doing differently if they DIDN’T like being the minority and complaining about the media?
Well, for one thing,they might acquire a television news outlet, especially since Fox has gone squishy and could use some conservative competition.
Prince Alwaleed owns a stake in the parent company of Fox News.
…and your point being…?
Owning a minority chunk is light-years away from owning all of a network, at least in the real world we all live in.
So, where does that leave you? Searching for moral or intellectual equivalence, comparing large-to-small fruit, and failing both with a thud.
I’d say ‘…nice try…’, but I’d be lyin’……..
Kevvie, if you don’t give a damn enough to think things through, why do you bother to comment at all?
When Glenn Beck was on Fox News, he was the only voice in the US media that told us about creeping Islamization and the ongoing effort to set up a new caliphate. He exposed the interconnections between al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the US power elite.
And you are saying that a powerful foreign Islamic interest played no role in removing Beck from Fox News? You’ll notice that nobody else on Fox News is discussing those issues.
I’ll concede that Alwaleed wasn’t the only person interested in silencing Glenn Beck. George Soros had something to do with it too.
Always follow the money, and never forget that he who has the gold (or even a significant ownership stake) makes the rules.
Right back at ya Uncle Kevvie. …and your point being…?
Beck tried to buy Current TV assets and operations, but was turned down, as Al Gore and the Crew were looking for a suitor more in line with their worldview. As such, this is a prime example of the Left-Islamist nexus that we Europeans find ourselves facing. The Red-Green-Brown alliance.
Beck had no way to match what Al Gore was being offered actually.
It’s a darn shame that Glenn Beck didnt get to buy it. That would have been a huge asset to BlazeTV. Which could have been a huge outlet for all the conservative talent online. Breitbart for example could join forces with Beck and fullfill Andrew’s dream.
This is also an example of the cordon saint aire that is being drawn around conservatives in the institutions.
From the leader in global warming to the leaders in global warring.
It will be good to get a more temperate perspective from that network.
It’s not as if it was really a waste of avgas, after all. I mean, it could have been worse — the President could have flown all the way from, say, Hawaii to Washington, D.C. for just a 48-hour smugfest and then flown all the way *back* to Hawaii to spend a couple of weeks playing golf and… um…
Greetings:
I live in the San Francisco Bay area, several soviets south of what the locals, for some arcane reason, refer to as “The City”. One of the local Progressive (née Public) Broadcasting System stations, call-sign KCSM, airs a one hour Al-Jezeera English news program daily and has been for several years.
I see bits and pieces of the broadcast from time to time and the whole on a more rare basis. To me, they don’t seem any worse than the normal PBS fare bias-wise, but some of that may be my proclivity to judge foreigners less harshly than Americans because, well, they’re foreigners.
What’s caught my attention of late is that they seem to be following PBS’s lead in re-hyping the “climate whatever” boondoggle. And, of course, their interviewées tend to all come from the lefto- Arabo-philic end of the crescent, I mean spectrum.
Behold the red/green/green (hard-left/eco-freak/pro-Muslim) axis. It’s everywhere:
Matt Damon’s anti-fracking propaganda film financed by oil-rich United Arab Emirates
Maybe the programming will be decent, now…
There is a story trending on Yahoo news that Glenn Beck tried to buy Current last year but was rejected because “his point of view isn’t aligned with Current’s point of view.” Apparently Al Jazeera’s point of view aligns just fine.
Al Gore: SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER-ful masseuses everywhere.
At first Al Jazeera’s coverage of the Middle East and the Muslim world does not seem any worse than any other. Its hosts and journalists are often former BBC people. It may even seem better, because it is more comprehensive and focused on the Middle East. But after a while the bias and misinformation will seep in and permeate every aspect.
Al Jazeera is not a private media corporation like ABC, NBC, CNN or Fox. It is an arm of the Qatar government. The Emir of Qatar has final say on all decisions relating to its coverage. The Qatar government supports the Muslim Brotherhood, they just promised $400 million to Hamas. Al Jazeera is a slick, modern-day propaganda channel with a deceptive veneer of well-compensated Western journalists to suck in unwary news hounds.
When Al Jazeera has the same broadcast on its English version as it has on its Saudi version, I might be interested, but I doubt it. I know where their heart lies.
The country that should think about opening up a cable news show in the United States is ISRAEL. With the exception of Canada (with Steven Harper as PM) and the US that still supports Israel despite Obama, Israel has very few friends. At least that have few friends that will admit that publicly.
There are a lot of wealthy Israelis as well as wealthy American Jews. They should join together to try to counter this and fast.
The Democrats already want to throw Israel under the bus given their antics at their convention this year. Israel does not want to lose Independents, Republicans and Libertarians as well.
Steven Spielberg, Michael Eisner, Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn et al. Are you listening?
From 1945 to 1948 American Jews buried their political agendas to:
1) Support the emigration of Jews (especially Holocaust survivors) to emigrate to Israel.
2) Support financially the Haganah, Irgun and Stern Gang
3) Pressure Harry Truman and Congress to vote yes at the UN for the re-creation of Israel.
Better get at it again fellas.
Your concern for Israel is touching. however, your anti-semitic comment shows a distinct brain malformation found primarily amongst jew haters. please get help before you harm yourself or others. or, others harm you.
Bring on the belly dancers!
You know, the lower chakra female types…
I’m going to continue NOT donating to KCSM although their radio station does great jazz programming.
Looks like a phase of one more move, in a small scale but on a well-calculated basis, America today falls into decline. This small phase of gap will grow steadily but certainly toward generating more severe wave of anti-America. Consequence of its matter will be grave for certain, I am afraid.
AL GORE-ZERRA TV
Now that Al Gore, the apocalyptic father of climate change hysteria, sold his worthless tv network to pro-al Qaida, Islamist Al Jazerra, hypocrisy has reached new heights of leftist falsehood. Not so much for closing the deal before the expiration of the Bush tax rates, or making the sale to the enemy, but because al Jazeera’s burning, fuming, toxic hatred of America, Israel and The West makes it among the world’s worst global warming polluters.