"Al Jazeera viewership is going up in the United States because it's real news," RNC's least favorite miniseries heroine Hillary Clinton explained in an old news clip that Al Jazeera America dredged up to show in its first hour of on-air existence this afternoon. "We are here to tell the story," one of the new network’s on-air talent, Antonio Mora told viewers in the network's opening moments, calling it "original American programming…from New York to San Francisco"…with its "rich mix of content from home and around the world," because "journalistic integrity knows no borders." Congratulations if you chose "integrity" as your drinking game word for the network's first hour of on-air life, though “community” was also a big player, and “Nashville” a surprising contender in that first hour, which wasn't so much a news program as a one-hour infomercial for the network, during which were introduced some of its on-air personalities, including Joie Chen, Mora, Ali Velshi, etc.
Related: Al Jazeera America's Interim CEO Insists New Network Name Not A Liability
Though there was loads of talk about the network's Nashville bureau in that first hour – one of 12 around the country and also including Washington D.C., Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Seattle, New Orleans, Dallas, Denver, Miami, and San Francisco — the network pointed out proudly, over a shot of the State of Liberty, that it will be headquartered in New York City — the "media center of America" and the cultural center of the world. New York’s also one of the places you could not see the launch — because Time Warner Cable announced back when Al Gore's low-budget network Current TV was being sold to Al Jazeera to create the new network that this is not what it had signed on for. The two sides are still talking, Al Jazeera’s interim CEO said in a recent phone news conference call with the press.
(AT&T U-verse joined Time Warner Cable late last night, citing contract disputes dating back to the channel’s time as Current TV, an AT&T spokesman said this afternoon. “We dropped the Current TV channel, and will not carry Al Jazeera America, on U-verse due to contract disputes. We could not reach an agreement with the owner that we believed provided value for our customers and our business”, AT&T said. AT&T U-verse, which has about 5 million subscribers nationwide, said it dropped Current TV at 11:59 PM ET last night — that’s just 15 hours before Al Jazeera America launched in that channel spot in what was to be about 40 million homes. On the Al Jazeera America website, the network still said it is available on the service at launch time.)
More to come….
No comments:
Post a Comment