Leftist/Jihadist Alliance: Al Jazeera acquires Current TV – Updated

Updated Jan 3, 2013:

Only in present day Progressive America would the owners of an American cable network believe that selling their legacy and choosing who their network goes to would be better served by selling it to the most powerful voice of the Muslim Brotherhood over that of a patriotic American and network like Glenn Beck and TheBlaze, even if their points of view were/are different!! It is perhaps one of the most blatant examples of far we have moved away from patriotism and the use common sense (one of Beck’s earlier books)!

msnNOW.com: Who knew Current TV had so many suitors? Before Al-Jazeera snapped up Al Gore’s little-watched cable network, Glenn Beck tried to buy it, but, as Beck himself tweeted, "we were rejected by progressive owners." The conservative media personality’s TheBlaze approached Current last year but was told that "the legacy of who the network goes to is important to us and we are sensitive to networks not aligned with our point of view," according to a source familiar with the negotiations. Current’s new pan-Arab owner may not align with everyone’s point of view, either: Time Warner Cable yanked Current from its lineup within hours of the sale, right in the middle of Eliot Spitzer’s nightly show. See full Atlantic Wire article below:

Leftist/Jihadist Alliance: Al Jazeera acquires Current TV

Jihad Watch: As I noted earlier today, Al-Jazeera has been dubbed "the most powerful voice of the Muslim Brotherhood." And Pamela Geller has noted that "Al Jazeera is the leading terrorist propaganda organization in the world. Jihad murder mastermind Anwar al-Awlaki has praised Al Jazeera, and several years ago one of its most prominent reporters was arrested on terror charges. Al Jazeera also has for years been the recipient of numerous Al Qaeda videos featuring bin Laden, Zawahiri, and American traitor Adam Gadahn. Yet they never seem to be able to trace where these videos are coming from. They have repeatedly been set up at the point of attack right before a bomb went off, so that they could take the picture of the slaughtered, dismembered bodies."

The Left and the jihadis have been cooperating for years. This makes their alliance official.

"Al Jazeera Acquires Current TV," by Brian Stelter for the New York Times, January 2 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

6:48 p.m. | Updated Al Jazeera on Wednesday completed a deal to take over Current TV, the low-rated cable channel that was founded by Al Gore and his business partners seven years ago.

Current will provide the pan-Arab news giant with something it has sought for years: a pathway into American living rooms. Current is available in about 60 million of the 100 million homes in the United States with cable or satellite service.

Rather than simply use Current to distribute its English-language channel, called Al Jazeera English and based in Doha, Qatar, Al Jazeera will create a new channel, called Al Jazeera America, based in New York. Roughly 60 percent of the programming will be produced in the United States, while the remaining 40 percent will come from Al Jazeera English.

Al Jazeera may absorb some Current TV staff members, according to people with knowledge of the deal who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. But Current’s schedule of shows will most likely be dissolved in the spring.

“Al Jazeera is planning to invest significantly in building ‘Al Jazeera America,’ a network focused on international news for the American audience,” the Current chief executive Joel Hyatt said in an e-mail to staffers on Wednesday evening. Referring to Mr. Gore, he said, “Al and I will both serve on the advisory board of Al Jazeera America, and we look forward to helping build an important news network.”

The plan will bring Al Jazeera, which is financed by the government of Qatar, into closer competition with CNN and other news channels in the United States.

For Al Jazeera, the acquisition is a coming-of-age moment. A decade ago, the Arabic-language channel was reviled by American politicians for showing video tapes and messages from al Qaeda members and sympathizers. Now it is acquiring an American channel.

“They really want to be able to compete for American viewers, and they have to find some way to get on,” said Philip Seib, the director of the center on public diplomacy at the University of Southern California and the author of “The Al Jazeera Effect.”

Mr. Seib said access to Americans is important both for economic reasons, for the channel’s advertisers, and for “the journalistic legitimacy of their venture.”

To date, the country’s cable and satellite distributors have been reluctant to carry Al Jazeera English. It is available in just a handful of cities, including New York and Washington. To change that, Al Jazeera has lobbied distributors, called for a letter-writing campaign by supporters and promoted its widely praised coverage of the Arab Spring.

Acquiring Current TV, and thus its distribution deals across the country, solves this dilemma for Al Jazeera, at least partially.

Current is hard to find on many cable lineups, and some analysts say it’s at risk of being dropped by some companies because of low ratings, but it would give Al Jazeera a foothold on the country’s cable and satellite service lineups. Then Al Jazeera could revamp the channel and promote it as a new American-based news source.

Representatives for Current TV and Al Jazeera did not immediately respond to requests for comment. There was no immediate word about the sale price.

Current was conceived in 2005 after Mr. Gore and another co-founder, Joel Hyatt, bought the small cable news channel Newsworld International. Current’s owners, along with Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt, include several venture capital firms and two major distributors, Comcast and DirecTV.

After several years in obscurity showing viewer-submitted videos and documentaries, Current tacked to the left in 2011 with the hiring of MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann. A year later, Mr. Olbermann was fired, but a liberal minded channel made in his image remained. The channel now simulcasts liberal radio shows in the morning and features news-talk shows in the evening by Joy Behar, Eliot Spitzer, Jennifer Granholm and others.

None of the shows have drawn significant audiences. On a typical night in 2012, about 42,000 people were watching the channel, according to Nielsen. Mr. Spitzer quipped to a reporter from Mediabistro last month, “Nobody’s watching, but I’m having a great time.”

At the end of October, Current confirmed that it was considering selling itself. Mr. Hyatt said in a statement at the time, “Current has been approached many times by media companies interested in acquiring our company. This year alone, we have had three inquiries. As a consequence, we thought it might be useful to engage expertise to help us evaluate our strategic options.”

The New York Times Company mulled a bid for the channel, but decided not to do so….

Current’s programming will continue for about three months. Then an international feed of Al Jazeera English will be simulcast on the channel. Sometime later in 2013, the rebranded Al Jazeera news channel, with 60 percent American programming, will start.

Al Jazeera intends to open new bureaus across the United States to support the American programming. The news operation currently has bureaus in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Miami, and Chicago.

Comments:

Comment 1

Lorenzo Pilaf | January 2, 2013 6:25 PM

This is what can be expected,

"Death to America!"
[MadTV Parody on Al Jazeera: Death To America!]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS4v_kj9rw4

Commment 2

TMH l January 2, 2013 6:42 PM

Well, he’ll (Al) bore them to death and then they’ll behead him probably.
T

Glenn Beck Tried to Buy Current TV But Was Rejected

Adam Clark Estes 9,198 Views Jan 2, 2013

Every once in a while a tweet appears that’s so silly, it must be a joke. Like this one from Glenn Beck: "Before Al-Jazeera bought Current TV, TheBlaze looked into buying it but we were rejected by progressive owners." Guess what? He’s totally serious. The Wall Street Journal caught the detail in its coverage: "Glenn Beck’s The Blaze approached Current about buying the channel last year, but was told that ‘the legacy of who the network goes to is important to us and we are sensitive to networks not aligned with our point of view,’ according to a person familiar with the negotiations."

Well no kidding! Current TV is the network founded by former Democratic Vice President Al Gore, later anchored by progressive hero-villain Keith Olbermann and recently featuring liberal former New York governor Eliot "I Do What I Want" Spitzer. This is the network that Glenn Beck, the far-right fanatic that was too extreme for even Fox News to handle, wanted to buy. It’s entirely unclear how far negotiations between Beck and Current TV got, if anywhere beyond Current’s executives laughing TheBlaze crew out of the room. And furthermore, who knows if Beck and company even had the money to throw down. Current TV’s reported sale price of $500 million, minus a $100 million for Al Gore who owned 20 percent of the network, is well north of what AOL paid for The Huffington Post nearly two years ago. In other words, that’s a lot money to pay for a fledgling independent media company.

It probably wouldn’t have worked out anyways. Current TV didn’t have the viewership that, say, MSNBC enjoys, but it does reach 40 million homes. We’re pretty sure that the 22,000 that tune in during primetime aren’t looking for the news according to Glenn Beck.

Glenn’s offer to buy Current rejected in favor of anti-American network

TheBlaze TV’s interest in Current was dismissed by Gore in favor of Al Jazeera. Shockingly, the media seems more concerned with Glenn’s dealings while yawning at the prospect of a former Vice President being aligned with a network that spews anti-American propaganda. More details on the shocking Al Gorezeera move on radio today came during Glenn’s interview with Brian Lilley from Sun News.

Fraud: Gore takes $100m in oil money in Current TV sale to Al Jazeera

In a stunning development yesterday Al Gore sold his TV network, Current, to Osama bin Laden mouthpiece Al Jazeera. TheBlaze TV actually inquired when Current went up for sale but was rejected by Gore because he wanted to sell Current to someone "aligned" with his values. Naturally, Gore felt totally comfortable with the "terror tape" network that is Al Jazeera. Glenn absolutely decimates the shocking move on radio today.

The Rich Get Richer: Dianne Feinstein’s Husband Also Cashes in on Current Sale to Al Jazeera

Most of the attention today has been devoted to the obscene amount of money Al Gore walked off with selling his low-rated cable outfit to Al Jazeera. And who knows how much Gore even invested in the initial venture considering it was a $70 million investment with numerous partners back in 2004.

Oddly though, today nobody seems to be asking DiFi about her hubby’s latest windfall.

Current TV’s investors included funds controlled by Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle and San Francisco money manager Richard Blum, according to a 2008 Securities and Exchange Commission filing when the company unsuccessfully sought to sell stock to the public. Blum is married to U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from San Francisco. More at JWF

Report: Gore’s $70M Take from Current TV Designed to Avoid Obama Tax Hikes

Al Gore, who shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his fight against global warming, may gross about $70 million from the sale of his Current TV network to Al Jazeera, the cable channel funded in part by oil-rich Qatar. More at NewsMax