Al Jazeera May Acquire CurrentTV
As the New York Times reports:
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.
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.
Although I suspect most conservatives will be outraged by the prospect, I predict that the new channel will be slightly less leftist and slightly less anti-American than CurrentTV or MSNBC. Perhaps that's like being "tall for a dwarf," but it's still an improvement. Further, I think it will be fun to see how my progressive friends react when they see an Al Jazeera channel being more pro-American than MSNBC.
[Disclosure: Although I don't believe it affects my opinion on this, I should probably reveal that my wife's cousin, Veronica Pedrosa, is an anchor for Al Jazeera English.]
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Sep '10
Re: Al Jazeera May Acquire CurrentTV
I , for one, welcome our new Jazeerian Overlords. At least Piers Morgan won't be an anchor.
May '12
Re: Al Jazeera May Acquire CurrentTV
Al-Jazeera English is where all the BBC's misfts go. Not that the BBC isn't venal and degenerate itself. It is. The Jimmy Saville paedophile scandal was the latest evidence of that. The only real difference between the networks is that Al-Jazeera takes the Left of center/Arab worldview instead of a inveterate Euro-Leftist perspective with the BBC more openly anti-Semitic than Al-Jazeera English.
It's a real shame they aren't showing Al Jazeera in Arabic. That's where the real Islamofascists are. I'd love to see all the Lefty LGBQT/Feminists/etc. get their panties bunched up when someone like Yusef Al-Qaradawi goes on air and calls for homosexuals to be executed or that it's entirely permissible to "lightly" beat your wife.
Mar '11
Re: Al Jazeera May Acquire CurrentTV
Pseud - as neither the US or UK want Mr Morgan, he may well end up on Al Jazeera.
Sep '10
Re: Al Jazeera May Acquire CurrentTV
I think even they draw the line at Captain Morgan.
Feb '12
Re: Al Jazeera May Acquire CurrentTV
Does that mean they get Keith Olberman?
Jan '11
Re: Al Jazeera May Acquire CurrentTV
If this headline had been written as a parody, it would have been dismissed as a too much of an exaggeration.
May '10
Re: Al Jazeera May Acquire CurrentTV
Anybody know whether Gore and his investors would make money with the sale, or lose their shorts? Probably the latter, but the NYT doesn't say. Hope so.
Regardless, Granholm in a burkha would be a ratings winner, at least temporarily.
Sep '10
Re: Al Jazeera May Acquire CurrentTV
Al JaGorea
Re: Al Jazeera May Acquire CurrentTV
Scott Reusser:
Regardless, Granholm in a burkha would be a ratings winner, at least temporarily. · 19 minutes ago
Hilarious! I'm dying.
That'd be almost as funny as Jennifer Granholm appearing on the Dating Game in the 1970s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4FJIP-eZCA
Mar '12
Re: Al Jazeera May Acquire CurrentTV
It might be another RT/Russia Today (funded by the Russian Government via the Federal Agency on Press and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation) - Not a significant ratings network on US Cable.
May '11
Re: Al Jazeera May Acquire CurrentTV
That reminds me of a story in an Arab newspaper (I think) I heard about. It began: "U.S. Vice President al-Gore..."
Mar '12
Re: Al Jazeera May Acquire CurrentTV
This bit from the item is sad but predictable: