Alssalama Al Jazeera America [UPDATE: Can’t Forget The New Republic]
[guest post by JVW]
Qatari-based Al Jazeera Media Network has announced that it will shut down its American news channel, Al Jazeera America, effective April 30. The channel launched in August of 2013, after the parent company purchased the former Current TV from a partnership including former Vice President and current Carbon Indulgence Kingpin Albert Arnold Gore, Jr. Recall that Al Jazeera paid a whopping $500 million dollars for the channel, with Gore’s take estimated as high as 20%. Gore and his parters later sued Al Jazeera alleging that the network illegally seized escrow funds that were set up as part of the deal, and it would appear that the issue remains unresolved to this day.
From the very beginning this deal seemed fishy. Even though Current TV was available to 60 million households at the time of its sale, viewership was poor and the channel was allegedly hemorrhaging money on high-priced (*cough, cough*) talent like Keith Olbermann, Joy Behar, Eliot Spitzer, and Jennifer Granholm. The Bloomberg article linked above reports that Gore himself was being paid an annual salary of $1.2 million to serve as chairman (that’s more than 82 times the annual wages of a minimum wage worker!). Despite revenues estimated at $100 million a year, neither the Gore team nor Al Jazeera appeared able to make a financial go of it, even though Al Jazeera shed the big names and focused more on stories than personalities. Positioning the network first as an even more leftwing alternative to the establishment sellouts at MSNBC (in its Current TV iteration) and then as an independent crusading voice providing a needed outsider’s perspective on American affairs (in its Al Jazeera iteration) never had the desired effect of winning over progressive hearts and minds. Perhaps what they never quite understood is that the low-information voter only tunes in to have his existing biases confirmed in a superficial and humorous manner (hence the popularity of comedian philosophers), not to be challenged with boring disquisitions from blowhard journalists trying to hide the fact that they work for an antisemitic company with a nasty penchant for rationalizing Islamofascist terrorism.
A half-billion dollar purchase goes belly up in a mere 32 months. Impressive.
UPDATE: Silly me, I totally forgot about the announcement earlier this week that The New Republic, the self-proclaimed “inflight magazine of Air Force Once,” is on the sale block. It turns out that when not using his Facebook billions in a futile attempt to purchase his husband a Congressional seat, TNR owner Chris Hughes managed to alienate most of the magazine’s writers and half their readership, yet he still couldn’t transition the magazine into a more modern outlet of journalism. Quite the week so far for schadenfreude in regards to annoying leftwing media.
– JVW
And I was so looking forward to Al Jazeera America’s rationalizing the scandals that have plagued Qatar’s selection as the host of the 2022 World Cup.
JVW (34f70e) — 1/13/2016 @ 4:51 pmJim Geraghty at National Review Online mentions that Al Jazeera America had raised viewership from 15,000 prime-time viewers to 20,000 to 30,000 prime-time viewers per night. One can almost hear the champagne corks popping. By contrast, Fox News averages about 1.8 million in prime time and even MSNBC has around 600,000, or 20 to 30 times the Al Jazeera viewership.
JVW (34f70e) — 1/13/2016 @ 4:57 pmthat is pathetic beyond measure, then again it might be the curse of David Schuster, since he left Fox’s employ,
narciso (732bc0) — 1/13/2016 @ 5:01 pmOT, but refers to media….
MD in Philly (not in Philly at the moment) (deca84) — 1/13/2016 @ 5:25 pmthe film “American Tragedy” about Gosnell has been released for showing ( http://3801lancaster.com/ ) through a process of local viewing sponsorship.
(Apparently there is no one with money willing to promote this in a standard release, or no theaters willing to show it).
Has anyone seen it, significant clips of it?
Thanks
$500m for, at the time, 15k viewers? Guess there were no cattle futures trading at the time.
ras (a8b8ae) — 1/13/2016 @ 5:33 pmJust stop operating? What about liquidation sales and such? Pass the collection plate maybe we could have Patterico TV.
I volunteer my serviced for Climate Corner. Starring Anthony Watts.
Well.
At least his blog.
papertiger (c2d6da) — 1/13/2016 @ 5:54 pmSaturday mornings with
HappyStinkyfeet {copyright fees are a budget killer- that’s why.}I could do “Meditation Gospel Hour” with Rev. Hoagie on Sunday mornings. And my wife could do a Korean language version.
Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie™ (f4eb27) — 1/13/2016 @ 6:14 pm“Cooking with happyfeets” might be the sort of car wreck that you just can’t help but watch.
Russ from Winterset (98beca) — 1/13/2016 @ 6:27 pmThis whole thing has always looked like a laundered bribe.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/13/2016 @ 6:34 pm“Perhaps what they never quite understood is that the low-information voter only tunes in to have his existing biases confirmed in a superficial and humorous manner”
The low-information voters support Trump.
Killary Klinton (66322c) — 1/13/2016 @ 6:43 pmI’m good for “Unhinged Ranting by JVW” for one hour three times a week (I would prefer Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday). It will be epic. We can get Tums and Valium to sponsor it, and I’ll bet Coors beer would be good for a commercial or two.
And I agree with Kevin M that this has always smelled of a bribe. Perhaps Gore promised not to go after Qatar’s oil production with his green jihad in return for the payola? In return they get a propaganda forum in the United States. If it is successful, so much the better; but if not, then at least they have breathing room to continue to produce fossil fuels.
JVW (d60453) — 1/13/2016 @ 6:48 pmUPDATE: Silly me, I totally forgot about the announcement earlier this week that The New Republic, the self-proclaimed “inflight magazine of Air Force Once,” is on the sale block. It turns out that when not using his Facebook billions in a futile attempt to purchase his husband a Congressional seat, TNR owner Chris Hughes managed to alienate most of the magazine’s writers and half their readership, yet he still couldn’t transition the magazine into a more modern outlet of journalism. Quite the week so far for schadenfreude in regards to annoying leftwing media.
JVW (d60453) — 1/13/2016 @ 6:59 pmSo happy those two are going under.
Rodney King's Spirit (3adc86) — 1/13/2016 @ 7:08 pm.
.
.
Now for the NYT.
Pick up on it, Koch Bros.! Buy and change the media!
This Hughes guy had planned to open “TNR themed” coffee houses, lol. Whoops.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 1/13/2016 @ 7:19 pmyou saw the two minute hate, aimed at Adelson, didn’t you, for the nerve of buying the las vegas paper,
narciso (732bc0) — 1/13/2016 @ 7:25 pmNo, must have missed it. But so what. Buy it up.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 1/13/2016 @ 7:30 pmI think there was a post here about it,
http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/adelson-son-law-orchestrated-familys-purchase-las-vegas-review-journal
narciso (732bc0) — 1/13/2016 @ 7:37 pmOne odd thing about Al-Jazeera: according to Jay Nordlinger of National Review, Al-Jazeera was entirely sound about Cuba. They reported regularly and in detail about the persecution of dissidents and the abuses visited on political prisoners by Castro’s goons. Would that major American media would do as much.
Rich Rostrom (d2c6fd) — 1/13/2016 @ 7:52 pmyes, even though they employ Lucia Newman, who was a stooge for the brothers, when she worked for CNN.
narciso (732bc0) — 1/13/2016 @ 8:00 pmspeaking of useless fishwrap, deploying lies, and omissions,
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cruz-addresses-nyt-report-that-he-didnt-disclose-goldman-sachs-loan-for-12-campaign/
narciso (732bc0) — 1/13/2016 @ 8:18 pmI would ask what documents they bother to read over there, but that would be unsporting of me,
narciso (732bc0) — 1/13/2016 @ 8:23 pmI knew there was a reason I didn’t read Mediaite. The commenters there are 85 percent functionally illiterate sleazeballs.
John Hitchcock (ebe26c) — 1/13/2016 @ 9:06 pmNews flash: I did not win the Powerball.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/13/2016 @ 9:07 pmwell phil kerpen has the link, yes it’s a den of Skullbearers,
narciso (732bc0) — 1/13/2016 @ 9:11 pmhere is the clean link,
https://twitter.com/kerpen/status/687461435522285568
narciso (732bc0) — 1/13/2016 @ 9:14 pm“his husband”
Does…not…compute…
CrustyB (69f730) — 1/13/2016 @ 9:34 pmOil revenue drunk jihadi buyers and a gubmint tit-sucker for life seller. By the standards of both parties to the transaction, not just impressive but a 500 ft grand slam!
Matador (57a586) — 1/13/2016 @ 10:06 pmI love the market mechanism.
ThOR (a52560) — 1/13/2016 @ 10:10 pmJust finished the re-cast on Fox of Ty Woods’ father, and Sean Smith’s mother, their reactions to 13 Hours. God bless them all.
I would say Hillary is every happyfeet obscenity ever uttered, except he’s come up way short.
I will donate every dime I can muster to Ted. But, if need be, I will live with the Donald, Marco, the fat slob from NJ, or even Jeb. Hillary is a filthy piece of inhuman excrement, not worthy of Booth’s bullet. Anyone who would consider her better than the worst R, you hate this country more than Obama.
Matador (57a586) — 1/13/2016 @ 10:40 pmNiki Haley wants to buy it. She is a bought and paid for pig.
mg (61d365) — 1/14/2016 @ 2:04 amBack in the day, I did Notification of Next of Kin and Survivors Assistance Officer a couple of times.I kept up with two families. Eventually, regarding one of them, I knew Mom was gone. Wasn’t
Richard Aubrey (472a6f) — 1/14/2016 @ 4:56 amuntil a couple of years ago I found she’d killed herself five years after her son was killed.
Another mother tried.
That’s a powerful lot of emotion and when it’s aimed at a bad person–Hillary and Obama–it can
scorch. As it should.
Problem is whether she has absolute moral authority. Perhaps we should ask Maureen Dowd.
(Anybody remember Cindy Sheehan?)
This news should make Peyton Manning very happy.
mike191 (4c004d) — 1/14/2016 @ 5:06 am“Cooking with happyfeets”
i’m a tell you how to make my festive holiday christmas red cup season brussells prouts!
ok you have to have a steamer we’re not gonna roast these puppies
ok trim up your prouts and bite-size em – halves n quarters people
done and done now toss them with oil salt and them red pepper flakes you saved from pizza delivery … then…
and this is key
throw in a handful of dried cranberries! – toss toss toss
good good
now it puts the prouts in the steamer
24 minutes gogogogo
ok your prouts is cooked but you have one more step
put prouts in container with lid and give it a good dusting with cinaminamon – then put lid on and shake a bit – this distributes the cinaminamon and knocks some of the leafs free so dish plates more pleasingly
PLS TO ENJOY!
happyfeet (831175) — 1/14/2016 @ 5:43 amred’s guide to tasty tasty Brussels sprouts:
feed them to pigs.
use the pigs to make ham, bacon, pulled pork, etc.
eat the good stuff, not little green balls of death.
you’re welcome.
redc1c4 (e499fe) — 1/14/2016 @ 6:17 ami have these bacons from amana lil brudder brought to town for red cup season
i been baking it for to do blts on mondays
never baked it before but these ones are cut so long it just works better
pioneer woman told me how
thanks pioneer woman!
happyfeet (831175) — 1/14/2016 @ 6:31 amIt turns out that when not using his Facebook billions in a futile attempt to purchase his husband a Congressional seat,
That makes me think of a character that radio humorist/spoofer Phil Hendrie (a creator of very convincing phony voices in a sly parody of a call-in program several years ago) would do on his show. The character had a voice that mimicked an older, senile guy who’d often mix up words, calling a guy’s wife his husband or a wife’s husband her wife.
Life imitates art.
Mark (f713e4) — 1/14/2016 @ 7:43 amOkay. You don’t like Stinkyfeet. How about Smellyfeet?
Circumstantial evidence written all over those recipes.
We almost have a weekend crew. Almost.
papertiger (c2d6da) — 1/14/2016 @ 8:51 amyou’re mean
happyfeet (a037ad) — 1/14/2016 @ 9:21 amThat’s what you get for messing with Peyton Manning.
M. Scott Eiland (1edade) — 1/14/2016 @ 9:55 amOften a disappointment to myself as well.
papertiger (c2d6da) — 1/14/2016 @ 11:26 amspeaking of crazy state propaganda outfits,
http://hotair.com/archives/2016/01/14/shocker-msnbcs-ed-schultz-joins-russia-today/
narciso (732bc0) — 1/14/2016 @ 11:41 am