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Front Page Talking Points

FOR THE WEEK OF AUG. 26, 2013

New cable news network – Al Jazeera America – adds diversity to media

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2.gifThe new network pledges to skip most celebrity news. See if you can spot something in that category.

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This country's youngest cable and satellite news channel is foreign-owned and has a name that sounds tricky, but isn't. It's Al Jazeera America – pronounced ahhl juh-ZEER-ahh. It's an English language network owned by the government of Qatar, a small Arab country on the Persian Gulf. The network, based in New York City, began last week with 14 hours of live news daily – including "America Tonight," an evening news show.

Al Jazeera America has about 900 employees , bureaus in 12 U.S. cities and a frequently updated website (america.aljazeera.com). Managers, producers and reporters are Americans with newspaper and broadcast backgrounds. Programs will include documentaries, investigative reports, a business show already airing, a sports program and a morning show. It already reflects "one of the most significant investments in television journalism in modern times," a New York Times media reporter writes, calling it "the most ambitious American television news venture since . . . the Fox News Channel [began] in 1996."

"It is an American channel for the American audience," says the top executive, Ehab Al Shihabi. “Viewers will see a news channel unlike the others . . . [with] fact-based, unbiased and in-depth news. There will be less opinion, less yelling and fewer celebrity sightings." And thanks to support from its oil-rich government owner, there are far fewer commercials than usual -- about six minutes an hour, compared with more than 15 minutes an hour on other news channels.

Network executive says: "We cover the areas that are not being covered. We cover areas that under-covered. We consider ourselves to be the voice for the voiceless." -- Ehab Al Shihabi, interim chief executive of Al Jazeera America

Critic says: "They have every right to be on. They have every right to be heard. . . . But Al Jazeera has two faces . . . [and] is, quite frankly, the voice of the enemy." – Glenn Beck, national radio talk show host

Professor says: "They're counting on there being an audience for kind of old-fashioned journalism, hard-edged journalism. I expect they will do a lot of investigative work and stay away from the Lindsay Lohan escapades and things like that." – Phil Seib, University of Southern California journalism professor

Front Page Talking Points is written by Alan Stamm for NIEonline.com, Copyright 2024

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Common Core State Standard
SL.CCS.1/2/3/4 Grades 6-12: An essay of a current news event is provided for discussion to encourage participation, but also inspire the use of evidence to support logical claims using the main ideas of the article. Students must analyze background information provided about a current event within the news, draw out the main ideas and key details, and review different opinions on the issue. Then, students should present their own claims using facts and analysis for support.