Guess what? Al-Jazeera English sucks and all because of Bush.:

Guess what? Al-Jazeera English sucks and all because of Bush.

By admin • June 10, 2008

It made me laugh, according to Tony Burman, Al-Jazeera English’s new boss it’s Bush’s fault that they can not get any customers in USA. But wait, there is a change coming and that is a good change; “…but for that to happen Burman must wait for the US electorate to delivers ‘regime change’ in the market it most covets.” and only then Al-Jazeera will breath better.

….

Al-Jazeera English has a huge presence in the US, with 120 journalists in its Washington bureau, but how does he explain the reluctance of cable companies to carry the channel? Are they unwilling to make space on crowded platforms for a news channel few will watch, or do broadcasters fear a political backlash?

‘I think it’s a bit of both,’ Burman says. ‘It is seen by some people as being a network that is sympathetic to interests that are hostile to the US. ( Ed: Woow, say it ain’t so my friend.)But I think it will change as the administration changes. The Al-Jazeera brand is hugely respected in most parts of the world. There is a problem in the US. That is a the challenge and it is being confronted head on.’

In Burlington, New England, where a tiny city-owned broadcaster with a few thousand subscribers carries Al-Jazeera, complaints from locals prompted the company to announce that it will be taken off air, but a local Republican representative is supporting its continued presence, Burman claims, and that decision could be reversed.

Larger battles are being fought and won elsewhere, he adds: ‘We are hopeful there will be a breakthrough in the American carriage situation soon.’

That may not happen until the post-Bush era, but Burman argues that it would enable Al-Jazeera English to take advantage of a hunger for foreign news, which has been gradually downgraded by the big networks, partly because it is so expensive to produce. ‘At a time when many news organisation are downsizing there will be an increase in our coverage of the world, more investigative journalism and new bureaux,’ he promises.

Many newsrooms already turn to Al-Jazeera English for coverage of events in the Muslim world, including the assassination of Benazir Bhutto last year, because its contacts give it an insight - and some scoops - that Western rivals may lack. It could be that a promotional push will take place once it has established a foothold in America, but for that to happen Burman must wait for the US electorate to delivers ‘regime change’ in the market it most covets.