Arab news channel Al Jazeera shuts down US operations

News channel Al Jazeera America finally signed off midnight Tuesday after thirty-two months of fearless broadcasting from its offices in New York City.

Although the franchise garnered prestigious awards, it failed to grasp the attention of the American audience and the news station was embroiled in controversial issues. Last January, Al Jazeera America announced that it would shut down this month and today (Tuesday), the franchise of the Qatar-based news agency is kissing goodbye to the American audience. According to CNN, most of the network’s staffers are hunting jobs in other news agencies or lobby NGOs. Here is a ‘throwback’ of Al Jazeera America’s legacy: January 2013 Al Jazeera purchases Current TV, a local channel owned by former Vice President Al Gore, for $50 million.   August 2013 Al Jazeera America debuts its airing in the United States. Former ABC executive Kate O’Brian is elected as president while Ehab Al Shihabi, a management consultant, becomes interim chief. The channel hires hundreds of talented and skilled journalists. Its first day of airing collects 48 percent of the viewers, according to the New York Times. April 2014

The documentary show ‘Fault Lines’ brags the exemplary Peabody Award for its feature story on the cholera epidemic in Haiti.

August – September 2014

Al Gore, the former owner of Current TV, sues Al Jazeera America for breach of contract. He claims that Al Jazeera owes him and his partner Joel Hyatt nearly $65 million.

April 2015 Matthew Luke, Al Jazeera’s former director of media and archive management, files a lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court against the news station. He complains after one of the directors asked him to exclude women from his meetings and projects. The director, Osman Mahmud, allegedly discriminated his female colleagues and exposed an anti-Semitic attitude. Since then, a series of resignation and grievance cases pile up, thus revealing mismanagement concerns within Al Jazeera’s company. May 2015 Al Jazeera’s CEO, Ehab Al Shibabi, is ousted after entrenching a ‘culture of fear’ in the news company. Al Anstey succeeds him. December 2015

Al Jazeera America reports on the doping issues faced by superstars in the National Football League and the Major League Baseball, including Peyton Manning, Ryan Zimmerman, and Ryan Howard. Lawsuits are filed against the network.

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January 2016

Al Jazeera broadcasts that it will be off the air in April, citing economic concerns as its primary challenge in the American media realm. Gianna Francesca Catolico, INQUIRER.net

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