Al Jazeera America to shut down cable news channel

[Chicog]

The real problem with most American News shows- it is not about News- it is all about money. One has to first be an entertainer rather than a news person. The station owners simply do not care whether one gets the straight information or not. they want to make sure the masses are entertained and watch the commercials so the bosses can add to their huge bank accounts. The last real news person in America was Dan Rather and the political powers got him off the air over a story he ran on President Bush. The story was absolutely true but the owners forced him out. American capitalism is undoubtedly filled with some of the most vicious and vile people the World has ever known. I would rather listen to Al Jazeera so I can form my own opinion rather than some of the absolute lies promoted as truth on Fox or CNN.

I don't really see much difference between watching a News channel owned by an Australian Billionaire, an American Billionaire or an Arab Billionaire.

They still all have their own agendas.

Edited January 14, 2016 by Chicog

[Ulic]

Sorry to hear this, a much better news program than the Rush Limbaugh-esque Fox.

But your right-winger Muslim hating extremists are all happy,aye?

Go Trump, aye?

I do agree, however I am interested in the difference in Al Jazeera Arabic vs. Al Jazeera in English.

I really am curious in the slant and point of reference.

Regardless I am still pulling for a Trump/Cruz GOP ticket. Just so much late night comedy gold

in that paring.

[Jingthing]

AJ Arabic is hard core true colors time.

Edited January 14, 2016 by Jingthing

[Chicog]

AQ Arabic is hard core true colors time.

What on earth are you on about?

[CMNightRider]

Americans much prefer their Faux News.

According to the ratings, Fox News is very popular in America, as well as other countries.

[HerbalEd]

Good riddance Islamic terrorist TV.

What a bunch of BS. If you've ever actually watched AJ news you'd realize there is nothing there any more Muslim than CNN or Fox ... and that the reporting is generally more balanced and unbiassed than CNN ... and much more so than Fox. However, what many Americans can stand is that AJ reports accurate, well-balanced stories about the side of the Middle East that you'll never see on Fox and seldom see on CNN.

Interestingly, Voice of America is also well done, accurate and balanced. Their producers, reporters and writers have no problem with telling the bad ... as well as the good ... about USA and it's government.

During my many travels throughout the world in the days before internet and satellite TV I would listen to BBC and VOA with my portable world-band radio and a wire antenna run up a tree. It was very often my only source of news and entertainment in English ... and a voice from home.

Edited January 14, 2016 by HerbalEd

[Chicog]

Americans much prefer their Faux News.

According to the ratings, Fox News is very popular in America, as well as other countries.

Yes, but the look at its demographic.

No wonder the commercials are all for Depends, a dazzling variety of pharmaceuticals, stairlifts, geriatric home care and mortgage release programs.

[arjunadawn]

Good riddance Islamic terrorist TV.

Finally! Darwin award for idiotic comment of the day! Congratulations.

Maybe, but considering survival of the fittest is your premise and AJ could not make it in America they clearly own the Darwin Award.

al Jazeera has a reputation in the middle east earned over the past number of years of always having such timely knowledge of islamic terrorist attacks that it became routine TTP SOP (Techniques Tactics and Procedures Standard Operating Procedures) that if ever Westerns encountered al Jazeera in a village or an intersection and there was an absence of other pedestrian traffic or market affairs, to immediately stop, reverse, and exit the Area immediately. This was true for many thousands of coalition/US troops and contractors. AJ had an uncanny ability to be present before terrorist attacks. AJ was rebuffed by the market because it is viscerally repugnant to Americans and a proxy/extension of a foreign nation.

"Islamic terrorist TV?" Many would suggest yes.

[arjunadawn]

Sorry to hear this, a much better news program than the Rush Limbaugh-esque Fox.

But your right-winger Muslim hating extremists are all happy,aye?

Go Trump, aye?

If it is presumed AJ was appealing to the market population that Rush/Fox has and this is why AJ failed it never had a chance and its demise was easily predicted. False comparison, but clever rouse to traffic an unrelated pejorative. Thanks for revealing the post with the implied caveat _____am a Leftist and follow a predictable playbook of demonization, emotion, and repetition to those who disagree with me. "...right-winger Muslim hating extremists... happy."

AJ was never appealing to this population. AJ could have only ever appealed broadly to an imagined center and left of America and it failed at this too. With Fox holding vast majority of market shares and this trend being long in trajectory how they ever thought there was any longer a center/left media market is astounding. Gore really sold them a load of malarkey. Good that they failed. Hope the reverberations cause their Qatari masters to lose a yacht or two. Perhaps IS will have to make do with less for a bit.

[balo]

What about CNN ? CNN vs FOX ? I'm not American but I wonder if it's like Democrats vs Republicans ?

Edited January 14, 2016 by balo

[Dustdevil]

On a more global scale, you can get more honest news from Al Jazeera and Russian TV than you can from CNN, Fox, or BBC.

They all have hidden agendas in their programming, so one should follow the money to see who is keeping them on the air.

If Al Jazeera can't make it due to finances, you know that the bankers and the corporations in the US do not support them.

Who told you this? Al Jazeera America was funded by the Qatari government. There is no reason to support a losing proposition. AJA never garnered more than 30,000 viewers.

[mopar71]

On a more global scale, you can get more honest news from Al Jazeera and Russian TV than you can from CNN, Fox, or BBC.

They all have hidden agendas in their programming, so one should follow the money to see who is keeping them on the air.

If Al Jazeera can't make it due to finances, you know that the bankers and the corporations in the US do not support them.

There is no such thing as honest news on Russian TV. Period.

[Dustdevil]

Americans only want to hear one side of a story so they watch Fox News. Al Jazeera will give you a different perspective which is always good.

I see you don't have the slightest clue. CNN, MSNBC for 24-hour news plus the three major free-to-air networks offer normal objective news coverage.

[Ulysses G.]

Good riddance Islamic terrorist TV.

Finally! Darwin award for idiotic comment of the day!

It seems that every single apologist for radical Islam

on the forum agrees with you. I must be doing something right.

[Ulysses G.]

Good riddance Islamic terrorist TV.

Somehow I sincerely doubt that you have ever watched it.

You sincerely don't know what you are talking about. I watched it often when I was in Thailand as there was not a lot f choice. I don't bother in America because there are much better sources of news.

[Pinot]

Fox News gets about three million viewers a day. They turn it on in the morning at the old folks home and it stays on all day. Seriously, go into any assisted living in the US and it's on. It's the old old white people channel.

Fox is the only source of news for half of its viewers.

Wingnuttia gets its daily marching orders from the ministry of propaganda (Fox News) and the conservative echo chamber of the fringe media, takes it from there. You see the same ridiculous talking points by the same same wingnuts here on Thai Visa every day because Fox News Thailand is on 24/7. These people need to be led. Fox News viewers are horribly misinformed about everything.

Fox News is leading the Republican party off a cliff as there is no middle ground on the radical right. Thanks to the likes of Hannity and Bill O, Trump and Cruz are leading the Republican race. Everyone of the candidates on that side are a disaster because the candidates have all been vetted by the Fox News Radical Right Purity Test.

I was always impressed by Al Jazeera being a truly "fair and balanced" news presentation, basically the complete opposite of Fox News. With the raging xenophobia of the Fox News fueled right, I'm not surprised by the idiotic comments of the TV Teabaggers regarding AJ.

The same people making the same lame comments, parroting what they just heard on Fox.

A shame to see the AJ voice of reason exiting the scene, but certainly not surprising in Muslim hostile America.

[Scott]

Posts violating Fair Use Policy have been removed. Do not quote sources without a link and only quote the first 3 lines and a link to the remainder of the source.

[Ulysses G.]

The same people making the same lame comments

The pot calling the kettle black.

Al Jazeera is a disgrace. Numerous employees have resigned because they were required to support the Muslim Brotherhood and print biased reporting. They are FAR from "fair and balanced".

As many as 22 Al Jazeera employees have quit since the overthrow of Mohammad Mursi, amid concern over the channels alleged bias towards the Muslim Brotherhood and its coverage of Egypt.

Criticism over the channels editorial line, the way it covered events in Egypt, and allegations that journalists were instructed to favor the Brotherhood are said to be the main reasons behind the mass resignations.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/media/2013/07/09/Al-Jazeera-employees-in-Egypt-quit-over-editorial-line-.html

Edited January 15, 2016 by Ulysses G.

[lostboy]

Good riddance Islamic terrorist TV.

Finally! Darwin award for idiotic comment of the day! Congratulations.

Maybe, but considering survival of the fittest is your premise and AJ could not make it in America they clearly own the Darwin Award.

al Jazeera has a reputation in the middle east earned over the past number of years of always having such timely knowledge of islamic terrorist attacks that it became routine TTP SOP (Techniques Tactics and Procedures Standard Operating Procedures) that if ever Westerns encountered al Jazeera in a village or an intersection and there was an absence of other pedestrian traffic or market affairs, to immediately stop, reverse, and exit the Area immediately. This was true for many thousands of coalition/US troops and contractors. AJ had an uncanny ability to be present before terrorist attacks. AJ was rebuffed by the market because it is viscerally repugnant to Americans and a proxy/extension of a foreign nation.

"Islamic terrorist TV?" Many would suggest yes.

You are far too unusually subtle for this reader. What are you actually saying?

If your allegations have merit, I find it more than a little ironic that the forward headquarters of the US central Command and an allegedly activist antagonist were located in the same place. I find that more than a little difficult to believe.

In taking a view on the issue of Al Jazeera America, I look to other international arms of domestic television channels. BBC International, ABC Australia, CCTV and others. The origins of these services lay in reaching their expatriates abroad. Some of them earned well deserved reputations as holding to strong democratic principles and so earned the trust of other viewers, for example the BBC World Service by radio during WWII. All of these international services reflect the values and culture of their domestic origins.

ABC's regional services have gone through a number of challenges and restructuring. It ceased operations for a while. It was contracted to some private operator for a while I think. ABC Australia is a publicly funded service so in time of budgetary constraint or internal political divide, questions are asked about the rationale for spending public money on international services. CCTV has always been part of a strategy to build and project soft power.

I am not a media analyst. I would imagine that market forces, in which the current anti-Muslim sentiment would have contributed, was the foundation of the decision to close down. Maybe when the price of oil (and by extension Natural Gas) increases, they may choose to re-open. My own personal view is that while many journalists and news managers believe in established journalistic principles, that televisions news no longer reflects these traditions. Print journalism is rapidly descending to that level also. Part of it is due to increased choices provided by technology, part of it is the abuse of the televisual medium to focus on style over substance, and part of it is the ideological and geo-political tainting of these international services. Al Jazeera can hardly be blamed for following these same traditions.

With the fall of Soviet Communism and the break up of Yugoslavia, I remember a lot of attention was given to the establishment of media outlets by various groups in different Balkan countries that were first heralded as a positive expression of freedom of speech after so long under totalitarian rule. But many of these media providers quickly became partisan activists with a mission to spread propaganda and hate speech.

Islamic Terrorist TV? Some would suggest so, but as a result of an ideological bias. Any serious allegation of such would have to have consequences, so I guess this explains your 'subtlety' and use of innuendo.

[Fookhaht]

On a more global scale, you can get more honest news from Al Jazeera and Russian TV than you can from CNN, Fox, or BBC.

They all have hidden agendas in their programming, so one should follow the money to see who is keeping them on the air.

If Al Jazeera can't make it due to finances, you know that the bankers and the corporations in the US do not support them.

. You might have thought Dubai could have made up for the shortfall?

[mopar71]

First of all, I regularly get my TV news daily from CNN Int'l, BBC World, Euronews mainly and a few hours a week from Fox News (via Internet). When something happens in continental Europe I turn on DW English service or France24. Al Jazeera is pretty good for non-Middle East news and at least they aren't full of BS pre-recorded shows like CNN Int'l constantly has (African Voices, sailing show golf show, etc)

Americans only want to hear one side of a story so they watch Fox News. Al Jazeera will give you a different perspective which is always good.

I see you don't have the slightest clue. CNN, MSNBC for 24-hour news plus the three major free-to-air networks offer normal objective news coverage.

The three networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) do not "offer normal objective news coverage". Maybe it seems that way when you agree with them. One example: Remember before the 2004 presidential campaign when Dan Rather on CBS pushed a fake letter about Bush's time in the National Guard? It was such a sloppy fake it CBS had to apologize and it eventually cost Rather his job. It was a typical Russian-type propaganda stunt and it embarrassed the network.

Other examples are what the big three choose NOT to cover. News that outrages conservatives or make liberals look bad either get no mention at all on the nightly news, or maybe a 20 second blip (the girl in San Fran shot by the illegal immigrant because San Fran is a "sanctuary city" immediately comes to mind.) In the meantime, liberal news gets coverage like the second coming of Christ. An example would be anti-war liberal icon Cindy Sheehan. She was a media darling during the Bush years, and even though she is still around and a critic of Obama, she gets no airtime.

An example from print news, the New York Times ran the Abu Ghraib story on the front page everyday for over a month straight. Important story? Sure. 40+ days important? No. How many Obama scandals has the NYT time run on its front page more then one day? Heck, even one day that didn't have a pro-liberal spin?

Fox News gets about three million viewers a day. They turn it on in the morning at the old folks home and it stays on all day. Seriously, go into any assisted living in the US and it's on. It's the old old white people channel.

Fox is the only source of news for half of its viewers.

Fox News Prime Time shows dominate for one simple reason, the county is roughly split about 50-50 between liberal & conservatives. Conservatives have one channel to watch where they know issues they care about will get a fair shake. Liberal viewership is split between the remaining channels.

Fox news being the "only source" for some viewers. Well, if you are watching 3 news channels and they all have the same liberal bias, then you are only fooling yourself if you think you are better off than the Fox viewers who watch only Fox.

Is Fox News "fair & balanced"? They can make that claim based on two things:

1) Before Fox News came around in 1996, ALL TV news leaned left: ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN (nicknamed the Clinton News Network) even the 3-month old MSNBC. With the addition of a conservative-biased network, the TV News scene became more "fair & balanced".

2) When discussing an issue, Fox normally has representatives of the Right and the Left offering their opinions. Other news channels are starting to do this more, but I have seen on CNN where they had a panel consisting only of Democrats on election night. Not very "fair & balanced" at all.

How is Fox News NOT "fair & balanced":

1) Hannity is awful. I consider myself a conservative but that guy is so obnoxiously pro-right, anti-left..always interrupting his guests that I can stomach his show only when he has a guest host.

2) O'Reilly is Hannity-Light. At least he pretends to be neither left or right but nobody believes it. He also interrupts his guests after a few seconds. I watch him to hear what his guests have to say when he gives them a chance to speak.

3) Morning shows. It's a silly morning show. Who cares?

Best show on Fox that you really should watch:

Special Report with Brett Baier. The only place on American TV News to see straight political & international related news without the liberal spin but also without obnoxious right wing spin either. Great panel at the :42 minute past the hour mark of the show whatever time zone you are in (6:42 AM in Thailand).

Question: how many of the "Faux News" haters have actually watched it? I have found that the "Faux News" crowd are like the America-haters I have known - none of them have even been to America, yet they hate it with a passion.

Edited January 15, 2016 by mopar71

[mikebike]

Maybe, but considering survival of the fittest is your premise and AJ could not make it in America they clearly own the Darwin Award.

No that would be Trump... AJA has one failed business which isn't filing for bankruptcy. Trump had several failed businesses which did file chapter 11.

[mikebike]

CNN, MSNBC for 24-hour news plus the three major free-to-air networks offer normal objective news coverage.

Uhm no. Hint - follow the money.

[arjunadawn]

Maybe, but considering survival of the fittest is your premise and AJ could not make it in America they clearly own the Darwin Award.

No that would be Trump... AJA has one failed business which isn't filing for bankruptcy. Trump had several failed businesses which did file chapter 11.

Actually, you are conflating apples and screwdrivers- there is no relation. A chapter 11 is not a Personal act; that's chapter 7. So, your effort to associate the two reveals... well, the poster.

Moreover, even following the faulty assumptions offered above, AJ is a property of a Government, the al Thani monarchy. Trump's net worth is at least equal or in excess to al thani's at 6-8 billion USD. So, for one man to be associated with businesses that failed and still achieve the wealth that a ruling monarch has that has amasses a nation's wealth for a few generations says more about Trump than al Jazzera failing. In fact, Trump supporters should thank you for offering the only conclusion that could be reached from your false premise.

BTW- one failed business could be considered a 100% failure rate, or a 50% success rate, depending on your perspective. Hardly stellar. Either way, it still would not reflect on al Thani.