Al Jazeera America Shutting Down-Employees complained that network executives were paralyzed by fear

[kpete]

Al Jazeera America Terminates All TV and Digital Operations

Glenn Greenwald
Jan. 13 2016, 11:04 a.m.
Executives of Al Jazeera America (AJAM) today are holding a meeting at 2 pm Eastern Time to tell their employees that the company is terminating all news and digital operations in the U.S. as of April, 2016, resulting in the loss of hundreds of jobs. The announcement marks a stunning and rapid collapse of what, from the start, has been a towering failure.

AJAM began when Al Jazeera purchased Current TV in late 2012 from founder Al Gore for $500 million, and the channel launched six months later. From the start, the project was beset with massive failures, from bitter internal strife and employee discrimination lawsuits to minuscule ratings and distribution failures. AJAM and Gore ended up in a protracted, embittered lawsuit with one another. Ratings were so low as to be almost unquantifiable; even by 2015, the network was averaging a tiny 30,000 viewers in prime-time and at some points had literally a zero rating in the key 25-54 demographic.

From the start, employees complained vociferously that network executives were paralyzed by fear, believing they had to avoid all hints of bias and opinion in order to steer clear of what these executives regarded as the lethal stench of the Al Jazeera brand for American audiences. This turned much of the network into a diluted, extra-fearful version of CNN, which itself has suffered from remarkably low ratings for years. AJAM journalists typically blame one AJAM executive in particular, Ehab Al Shihabi, its executive director of international operations. Al Shihabi, whose background is in business and not journalism, was widely regarded as the prime author of the network’s identity problems and obsession with voice-less content.




More:
https://theintercept.com/2016/01/13/al-jazeera-america-terminates-all-tv-and-digital-operations/
http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/13/media/al-jazeera-america/index.html?section=money_topstories

[joeybee12]

1. Sort of believable...look how they caught Payless Manning

and then tried to backpedal when the Repuke d-bag threatened to sue.

[Blue_Tires]

13. Well Howard and Zimmerman *have* sued

So I don't know how much difference Manning not suing them would make...

So maybe they tried to backpedal because their story is shit... If there was really something there, other sports news outlets would have jumped on it pretty quickly...

[joeybee12]

14. You really believe that?

This is a classic example of suppressing the media...especially since they know the NFL wants it suppressed and Ari Flesicher, who helped suppress war crimes, is on on Payless' payroll.

Tell, why did Payless' wife receive HGH at home during the time Payless was recovering from neck surgery? Payless isn't denying that fact. That's enough to do digging, but the media won't.

[Blue_Tires]

15. "suppressing the media?"

You don't really know how "the media" works, do you? If you did, you'd know nothing sells like scandal and plenty of players bigger than Manning have been brought down by investigative reporting...

*WHO* has supposedly "suppressed" this story? By that I mean who has been prevented from investigating or reporting further (assuming there is something further to report)?

Yeah, I see the avatar and it's clear you hate Manning (I do to), and you REALLY wanted this to go somewhere... But I also hate Brady and I REALLY wanted Deflategate to go somewhere too, so I feel you... So just accept it and move on, or do your own investigative reporting on the story -- You might end up famous...

[joeybee12]

16. I apparently have a better idea of how the media works than you...

If you think Ari and the NFL were not calling in favors to kill this story, you're way off base. Tell me, how did people not know that FDR couldn't walk? Because his press people cajoled, threatened reporters every single day. Suppressing the media is a time-honored tradition. People control what scandals get out there. Honestly.

[Blue_Tires]

17. Why would the NFL stick their neck out to protect Manning?

The league makes mountains of money regardless, and even superstar players are replaceable...And why would the league pull strings to protect Manning but not protect Brady or Vick or any number of players from previous cases? Why didn't MLB call in some favors to kill the Balco story? Lance Armstrong called in favors, begged, threatened, harassed and coerced folks for years and the story still came out...

Believe me, there are plenty of folks in sports media who hate Manning more than you do, and if there was something there, they'd be on it... So lose the fan blinders, look at this story objectively and move on... Focus on how not to get run off the field by Kansas City this weekend, instead...

Besides, if I may be so bold, it really isn't the place of a Patriots fan to be all angry and yelling about cover-ups (real or imagined)...

[mythology]

18. To be fair, there is a case in which the NFL did stick its neck out to protect the Patriots

The NFL allowed the Patriots to contend that the illegal taping scheme was only for a few games when the NFL knew it was for at least 40 games and the NFL destroyed the evidence.

Belichick should have been suspended for that. Letting him off with a fine was a joke.

If Manning is guilty, he should also be suspended. That said, Al Jazeera backed off of their accusations pretty quickly from Manning received HGH to his wife did and we have no idea why anybody things we suggested Manning got the HGH. That alone makes me question the legitimacy of the story. The authors were way too quick to back down if they had any really substantiated evidence.

[snooper2]

2. Hmm, maybe VICE, who employee the last real journalists, can pick it up for pennies on the dollar?

[closeupready]

7. +1.

[Sherman A1]

3. Well that sucks

It was the best of what was out there.....

[Ligyron]

5. yeah, I enjoyed it when I watched.

seemed to be the most neutral, balanced coverage of international news. looks like I'm back to BBC america.

[Go Vols]

9. Al Jazeera English

is pretty good if you can get it.

[Initech]

4. Gee thanks Republicans!

[Scootaloo]

6. Does this mean that if I decide to read the news from al-Jazeera...

That I will get the actual al-Jazeera site, and not the AJAM site, telling me all about Lindsey lohan's panties or whatever?

[malaise]

8. That's actually great news

The AJAM site sucked big time.

[Scootaloo]

10. Right?

I used to read AJ pretty regularly. and then I got stuck only seeing the american version (Unless I wanted to run it through google translate) so... I just stopped.

[grossproffit]

11. In other words, low ratings.

[Blue_Tires]

12. And of course Greenwald is celebrating this because of reasons, I guess?

Here is a non-Intercept link for those DUers who may not wish to read the mental sludge of an anti-Western charlatan like Glenn Fucking Greenwald...

[JCMach1]

19. loved AJE when I lived in the Emirates... the American version was just BAD...

[Blue_Tires]

20. Hopefully Russia Today is next...

I'd say something about the Intercept too, but they aren't a news organization, nor do they pretend to be... RT at least keeps of the charade of being legit...

[NYCButterfinger]

21. Somewhat sad.