Chasing the American Dream

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Chasing the American Dream

62 > qatar today > august 2013

Al Jazeera America will start broadcasting from August 20. Is this audacious attempt to conquer a complicated new market doomed from the start?

Ayswarya Murthy investigates.

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othing certifies your legacy like when your name becomes part of the lexicon, in this case when it’s being used to describe an unrecorded political science/media phenomenon.

Long before Philip Seib popularised the term through his 2008 book The Al Jazeera Effect: How the New Global Media are Reshaping World Politics (though in the book he talks about the internet-powered new media), Al Jazeera had transformed the way events were being covered in the Middle East, drowning out the propaganda and lopsided reporting of government-run channels to give a voice to the voiceless, fearlessly presenting all sides of the story and, in the process, ruffling quite a few important feathers. In the past few years, bankrolled by the powerful Qatari government, Al Jazeera has as much shaped the political landscape of the region as it has reported on it. It has undoubtedly had its share of controversies and accusations (of being a Qatari mouthpiece), but it is an undeniable fact that in less than two decades from its founding Al Jazeera has come to be widely regarded as an authoritative source of news not only in the Arab world but also in African regions that are largely ignored by the global media. How did it manage that? That is another story for another day.

But will it be able to replicate this success, or even a fraction of it, in the United States?

Now that’s a million-dollar question.

AJAM threw open its editorial meeting to the citizens of the social media when it hosted an "open editorial meeting" online, asking people about stories that have been largely missed by the national media that they would they like to see on the channel. The discussion brought to light a lot of subjects like the rapid growth of low-wage service jobs in the country, the student loan bubble, illegal immigration from the north etc. It remains to be seen what AJAM will do this information.

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A foot in the door Or a 500-million-dollar question, if reports

by Forbes and the New York Times are to be believed. Though the details of the deal haven’t been disclosed, that is how much Al Jazeera is supposed to have paid to purchase the ailing Current TV, of which former US vice-president Al Gore owned a substantial share. It’s close to four times the amount the Father Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani is said to have loaned to Al Jazeera in 1996 to tide it over its first five years of operations. Ex-Director General Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani said the creation of the new US-based news channel was a historic development in Al Jazeera’s 16-year history.

After years of unsuccessfully trying to penetrate the US market, where many cable and satellite carriers won’t even distribute Al Jazeera English (AJE), the network apparently decided to bulldoze its way in. Starting this August, the young Middle Eastern channel will go head to head against broadcasting goliaths like CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, albeit on a smaller scale (Al Jazeera America – AJAM – will be broadcast to 40 million households in contrast to the 100 million households that can tune into CNN, but that's still better than the measly 4.7 million viewers who currently have access to Al Jazeera English). It has already, as of June end, recruited over 650 full-time employees (out of 22,000 applicants) in its 12 bureaus, notably some star-billing journalists poached from competitor networks, like CNN’s Chief Business Correspondent Ali Velshi; several Emmy Award-winners including eight-time winner Josh Bernstein as the channel’s on-air investigative reporter; and ABC’s Kate O’Brian as Network President. A very good start indeed.

But it’s just that – a mere start. Sure they are beaming directly into millions of homes but who is going to tune in?

A much-needed fresh perspective The American media landscape is a quagmire of corporate-backed newsrooms with both explicit and subtle political leanings, where nothing is as it seems. According to Frugal Dad, the Big Six (Comcast, News Corp, Time Warner, Disney, Viacom and

CBS) control 70% of the content on cable and 90% of all media including newspapers and radio. Even the media watchdogs (and there are quite a handful) are biased in what kind of biases they choose to correct.

For example, Media Matters for America monitors and analyses conservative misinformation, while Media Research Centre is its liberal-bashing counterpart. In this kind of environment, American audiences should understandably be wary of the news that they are being fed and eager for new perspectives.

“When it comes to journalism, our view is the more the merrier,” says Steve Rendall, who is a Senior Analyst at FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), a national media watchdog group. “Large US corporate media outlets with few exceptions fail to hold the powerful to account. They are far more likely to side with corporate and governmental elites than to tell truth to power.”

June Cross, Associate Professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, feels the single-biggest edge that AJAM has over other, established, channels is that it is not owned by an American corporation. “US audiences need to see reporters questioning authority of any kind and/ or questioning the status quo ante – whether that be the standard narrative the rest of the media have fallen into or the narrative laid down by the present administration,” she says.

Many pressing issues concerning the powerless, the poor and the homeless have slipped through the cracks in coverage in the States, according to Rendall. “They just are not on the corporate agenda served by US media. To the extent that Al Jazeera or any other outlet bucks this trend will be providing a public service that Americans sorely need,” he says.

Also, AJAM’s promise that investigative journalism, carried out by its 16-member team, will be its core focus is bound to pique the interest of the American public. “Investigative journalism is expensive. Most don’t bother with it because it isn’t value for money,” Hugh Miles, author of the book Al Jazeera: How Arab TV News Challenged

the World, points out. “Al Jazeera has the capacity to fill this void. It has deep pockets and is not subject to self-censorship, unlike the local channels, which operate with a lot of baggage.”

“The other huge gap that I can see that AJAM could fill,” Cross continues, “is the non-existent coverage of international news.”

Philip Seib, Professor of Journalism and Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California, concurs. “Most American channels do a poor job with the breadth of international coverage.” This is where AJAM can shine. With over 70 bureaus around the world, the channel is poised to cater for this in full measure (and it has proven to do a good job of it too, considering the award-winning reportage at AJE).

So prima facie, everything seems to be wonderfully peachy. The supply-demand economics have been studied and there is a dire need, apparently, for the exact kind of product that AJ is best at delivering - bold and fearless journalism with depth and range. So all they need to do is satisfy this demand.

Will AJAM stand its ground?

While Cross was pointing out the areas where AJAM could step in and up the ante, she also included a big rider: “If it has the courage to ignore the tyranny of the cable news marketplace.” Will it? Can it?

AJAM’s interim CEO Ehab Al Shihabi has promised repeatedly since the announcement of the launch that the channel will deliver what research has shown that over 40 million Americans want – “in-depth informative journalism” – by sticking to hard news and investigative journalism.

MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell recently debunked the implications of the statement. Speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival on "What is the future of TV news", he said: “I think if you did a survey of the 300 million Americans, somewhere close to 50 million of them would tell you that they would like to read the complete works of Shakespeare. They won’t, even if I put every single page on their desks in front of them.” He goes on to say that “in-depth TV

“There is definitely a minority-demand for Al Jazeera English in the States. Many watch it online.”

Hugh Miles Author and journalist based in Egypt and UK

According to a press release from the network, almost 40% of all online viewing of AJE comes from the United States.

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development > tag this

Online Chatter from Al Jazeera America's Facebook page Very excited for the launch. Please continue your serious, unbiased reporting here in America. We NEED a true news outlet without a left or right agenda!

One day I would have cheered this but since the uprising in Libya Al Jazeera has become a mouthpiece for the Qatar government in its coverage of the Middle East and critical global affairs in general and, deservedly, has lost the respect of much of its Middle East audience.

We’re seeing a lot of CNN folks moving over to your house. For those of us who love Al Jazeera and regard it as the only objective news source, this is a red flag. Please don’t allow Al Jazeera to become another CNN. Please do not sensationalise, analyse, have round tables or otherwise. Just report the news objectively as you do best. The American model ought not be yours.

The term "Breaking News" has become a joke. Make it mean something on Al Jazeera.

I hope that the new channel will be news and not constant editorial content.

The American media including CNN have forgotten what news is.

Will Al Jazeera America be dumbing down its content in order to appeal to American audiences? I really don't want this to be another fox.

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"US audiences need to see reporters questioning authority of any kind and/ or questioning the status quo ante."

June Cross Associate Professor, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

news” is definitely out there, but doesn’t have too many takers. “This 50 million is unaccountable... They’ll sneak out to the ballet or bowling or all sorts of other things when you offer them this time-specific, in-depth news that they won’t watch.”

Although O’Donnell is from the rival camp, he can’t be completely discounted.

Journalistic ethics and high-minded intentions are all very well, but will AJAM stick to its guns when its success is measured not in terms of the number of awards it wins but by the ratings it manages to get?

“That is cause enough for all to be concerned. Because ratings have little regard for quality journalism. Entertainment and celebrity drive ratings in this country, not hard-hitting reporting,” Cross says. And while there is a section of the audience that wants more international news, “it’s probably a small, elite one,” according to Seib.

Is this why AJAM’s initial plans to share a significant portion of AJE’s programming was scrapped in favour of 100% completely original programming? “AJE has some high-quality programming, for sure, but I

doubt if it’ll match the taste of the average American viewer,” Miles says. Qatar Today got no response from the head honchos at AJAM’s headquarters in New York to this query.

Like many channels in the past and no doubt many in the future, AJAM not only has to fight the temptation to pander to the lowest common denominator; it also has to deal with the skewed perception people have of it in the States. Miles mentions how Al Jazeera’s reputation is much better in Europe than in America. “The Americans definitely would be much more prejudiced and paranoid about the new channel, what with the rampant Islamophobia on the ground and a long history of government blackening the channel’s name,” he says.

Will AJAM will able to deliver on the agenda that it promises without coming across as “anti-American” to its viewers (and, more importantly, to advertisers and cable carriers)? As Rendall points out, “advertisers are notoriously skittish and averse to upsetting the powers that be. I think this could be a major sticking point for AJ America. If Al Jazeera is going to depend on advertising revenues, it will be hard to avoid corporate influence.” And this will certainly spell taking the appeasement route. So will it opt to water down its style to something more vanilla, thus losing its identity and purpose? This is the debate that has been raging for a while now, long before the channel has even gone on air.

And within Al Jazeera Network itself, the cracks are showing.

Marwan Bishara, Senior Political Analyst at AJN and host of the discussion programme Empire, wrote an e-mail to the top management of AJAM accusing them, particularly Al Shihabi, of “acting out of political ambition”. The scathing 1,600-word letter stated that “some terrible decisions have been taken” including “signing a deal where AJAM content/programmes must be substantially different from AJE”, keeping out of the loop those at AJN who know America best and, in the process, “short-changing AJN and Doha”. He warns the decision-makers (while pointing out that there is no clarity on who exactly they are) that if they are leveraging Al Jazeera’s brand and credibility only to deliver weak content in an

Both the audience and the channel have much ill-feeling to put behind them.

Americans still hold a grudge against the channel for giving Osama bin Laden airtime (among other things), while Al Jazeera won’t forget in a hurry how its offices in Kabul and Baghdad were hit by American missiles, giving rise to speculation that the military was targeting the network. attempt “to appease those who won’t [be], or don’t necessarily want to be, appeased” then they will fail America and “it will be ever more difficult to salvage a tarnished image and compromised credibility”. He raises some shocking questions, like whether contractual obligations could mean the banning of AJE altogether from America. He also talks about “a high degree of intimidation and pressure, in addition to a lack of consultation” and is particularly angry about how there was “no discussion about the identity and culture of the new channel”. All in all, it sounds like AJAM is gearing up to do exactly what it isn’t supposed to do (see comments in the "Online Chatter" box).

AJAM officials, while responding to Bishara's comments to the Guardian, have claimed that Bishara is not part of the launch team and thus isn’t privy to the inner workings and editorial direction of the channel, assuring readers that “the Jazeera brand is central to what we are doing”.

If indeed they end up being slammed as “anti-American”, at least they’ll not be

alone. Cross says: “I think this country has become so segmented politically and ideologically that there will always be those who perceive any questioning as “anti-American”. Thus this “American channel for Americans” must, regardless of how they think they are perceived by their viewers, maintain its independent spirit and play to its strength, “which means solid, in-depth reporting of stories that their competitors miss,” according to Seib.

“For many US media and politicians from the right to the near-left, Al Jazeera will be portrayed as anti-American no matter what; American xenophobia will ensure that.

Hard-hitting investigative journalism that challenges power will exacerbate this,” says Rendall, reminding the channel that it's only rough sailing henceforth if it plans to remain true to its course. “Al Jazeera should expect to get the same sort of anti-America-baiting that the independent left American media get, but with added venom because AJN is foreign-based, and, ‘worse’, based in the Arab/Muslim world.”

“Everything is political” Of course, no channel can be completely free of bias, and at the other end of the spectrum are people who worry that AJAM might try to influence American audiences regarding events in the Middle East, particularly when it comes to the prerogatives of the Qatari leadership.

“Sure, they seem neutral now, but wait till there’s another war in the Middle East. Then we’ll see – everything is political,” says Miles wryly.

For AJAM it’s a delicate balancing act.

While it must keep its editorial decisions independent of Doha, it should not be pressured or intimidated into severing ties completely with AJN and its journalistic identity, or it may end up becoming another also-ran and lost among the CNNs, MSNBCs and Foxes of the country.

Everyone knows that running a channel isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon, but the editorial direction it takes during these initial stages will reveal the answer to a fundamental question: What is Al Jazeera America really in it for? Money? Prestige?

Popular appeal? Or just the truth?

"AJAM must play to its strength – solid, in-depth reporting of stories that their competitors miss."

Philip Seib Professor of Journalism and Public Diplomacy University of Southern California

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