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Al Jazeera America Cuts Most U.S. Programming

G

Gregg.

It looks like most of the Al Jazeera America schedule is gone. Most of the day, the programming is simulcast with the international Al Jazeera English channel, with anchors in Doha, Qatar, hosting. Most of those anchors do not have American accents. And a few programs already recorded, such as Tech Know, which used to run for 30 minutes on weekends, are now all over the schedule, using shows that aired months ago. Here's an article about the cutbacks...

http://www.thetower.org/1491-low-vi...zeera-america-to-cut-staff-programming-again/

There are a few weeknight U.S. shows still on the air, such as America Tonight with Joey Chen, Real Money with Ali Velshi and Inside Story with Ray Suarez, still airing starting at 10pm. But these were big names who came from ABC, CNN and PBS, so they probably negotiated no-cut contracts for several years. Chen and Suarez's 60 minute shows have been cut to half hour programs. So while Chen, Velshi and Suarez are still around, you can imagine that they are working with just a small support staff.

When Al Jazeera America first started, only a few hours overnight were from Doha. Even on weekends, U.S. based anchors were on the air most of the day. They got fairly good carriage from American cable operations. I see AJE on Time Warner and they also have carriage on Verizon Fios. But I guess Qatar no longer wants to foot the bill for the American operation, since ratings are reportedly very low and ad sales minimal.

My concern is for many news professionals who gave up jobs at other American networks. They joined Al Jazeera America with promises of higher pay and a well-funded news operation. If they're not on the air anymore, I suppose they've been laid off.
 
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There was no way AJA was going to make money. If it's just going to be a feed from Qatar, what's the point then?
 
AJA never had a chance, not in this country, in this climate. My local cable provider, Cox, never considered adding the channel. I watched a bit of it while visiting in a Comcast-served town and was impressed with its professional, thoughtful coverage. Anything even tangentially Muslim is poison to many Americans and American advertisers were never going to get into bed with an entity based in Qatar.
 
Perhaps the international version is better. I know that for CNN - other nations (including Mexico) run what they called "CNN International" here. As far as I know, CNN never shows that feed here anymore - I know my cable company dropped it some years ago.

It is WAY superior to our CNN - they skip most of the silly bells and whistles that Americans seem to want, and tone down the "show biz" elements. The anchors are better too - generally no nonsense types like Jim Clancy (who just retired, I believe).
 
LKellerIII said:
Perhaps the international version is better. I know that for CNN - other nations (including Mexico) run what they called "CNN International" here. As far as I know, CNN never shows that feed here anymore - I know my cable company dropped it some years ago.

It is WAY superior to our CNN - they skip most of the silly bells and whistles that Americans seem to want, and tone down the "show biz" elements. The anchors are better too - generally no nonsense types like Jim Clancy (who just retired, I believe).
Click to expand...

Verizon FiOS still carries CNN International in addition to the domestic version and HLN.
 
Yes, I also have CNN International on Time Warner. And if you want to watch it on any cable system, the U.S. CNN simulcasts CNNI for a few hours overnight.

But the poster who said most Americans were never going to watch Al Jazeera America is probably right. Any product with an Arabic name was never going to be widely accepted, be it TV news or toothpaste. In fact, I'm not sure any product with a name that isn't English, or at least European, is probably not going to fly, except for some foreign cars or airlines.
 
LKellerIII said:
Perhaps the international version is better. I know that for CNN - other nations (including Mexico) run what they called "CNN International" here. As far as I know, CNN never shows that feed here anymore - I know my cable company dropped it some years ago.

It is WAY superior to our CNN - they skip most of the silly bells and whistles that Americans seem to want, and tone down the "show biz" elements. The anchors are better too - generally no nonsense types like Jim Clancy (who just retired, I believe).
Click to expand...

I'll agree that the AJ international feed was far superior to the American version. I was thoroughly annoyed when AJA launched and the webcast of the international feed was geoblocked for the U.S. AJ might have a different perspective than what Americans are used to, but most of what I've seen on the international feed is on par with BBC World. Unfortunately most Americans don't give a damn about international news unless American citizens are involved, which is why so much of the U.S. networks foreign coverage is so superficial.
 
The cable news market is so oversaturated, this comes as no surprise. New cable news channels keep popping up like weeds. Just in the last few months on Fios we've had 2 new networks added: One America News and NewsMax. This is in addition to the 10 or so networks we already have. Who has time for this much news.
 
ansky212 said:
The cable news market is so oversaturated, this comes as no surprise. New cable news channels keep popping up like weeds. Just in the last few months on Fios we've had 2 new networks added: One America News and NewsMax. This is in addition to the 10 or so networks we already have. Who has time for this much news.
Click to expand...

Truly. 20 years ago, I subscribed to a couple of newspapers that I read daily for my news, and supplemented it with local news on my local TV stations, and national/international with CNN.

These days, i don't read newspapers, except on the internet, and I'm now in the habit of checking out about 5 news websites daily. I've also become an NPR junkie, and listen morning and evenings on my commute. That's more than enough news, thank you. So I rarely tune in TV news - local or cable, unless there's a big breaking story.

IIRC, NewsMax is conservative leaning - I recall that they carried George Putnam's commentary on their website until his death. If, as you implied, they are moving into TV - how do they expect to compete with Fox News? Impossible, I would think.
 
I guess it's good Morgan Fogarty didn't take the job. She was all set to leave WCCB, the Charlotte NC CW affiliate, and changed her mind and stayed as the 10:00 anchor. She has a male co-anchor, but she seems to be the one person everyone thinks of. Now would she have been able to come back if she was one of the ones fired?
 
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