Soledad O’Brien & Other CNN Alums Join Al Jazeera

[kpete]

Al Jazeera America Confirms Soledad O’Brien Deal

By LISA DE MORAES, TV Columnist | Monday July 1, 2013 @ 6:00am PDT

Al Jazeera America confirmed this morning it had signed a deal with former CNN star Soledad O’Brien to contribute to the network as “special correspondent.” O’Brien’s production company, Starfish Media Group will produce hourlong documentary specials for the cable network. “I look forward to beginning a relationship with Al Jazeera America, which has made a commitment to producing quality programming and pursuing underreported stories,” O’Brien said in the announcement, confirming speculation that started last week. As a correspondent, O’Brien will contribute short-form segments to the primetime current affairs mag America Tonight on the new network, which is funded by the government of Qatar.

O’Brien stepped down from CNN in March when network chief Jeff Zucker scrubbed her program Starting Point; he gave the time slot to Chris Cuomo’s New Day. At the time she left CNN, she formed Starfish Media, which, in addition to the production deal with Al Jazeera America, now also has a production deal with CNN, and development deals at HBO and National Geographic Channel.

America Tonight’s senior exec producer Kim Bondy is another CNN alum. In this morning’s announcement, Bondy said she’d worked with O’Brien since 1997, “so I know she cares deeply about covering the human side of a story based solely on the facts,” Bondy said, adding that the newsmag “will go beyond statistics and headlines to provide an in-depth, unbiased look at the events of the day and how they affect our viewers.” Al Jazeera Media Network exec director of international operations, Ehab Al Shihabi used similar language in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, saying the new network would be unbiased and feature less political grandstanding and celebrity coverage than existing cable news network. Al Jazeera America has been lining up relationships witeh names known to U.S. news viewers in an effort to quell what Al Shihabi, in that LAT interview, called “a bucket of resistance” to the channel. In addition to O’Brien, the list includes CNN’s Ali Velshi and NBC’s Mike Viqueira.

http://www.deadline.com/2013/07/al-jazeera-america-confirms-soledad-obrien-hire/

[Larkspur]

1. Will Al Jazeera America promote David Schuster into a primary anchor spot?

I think he's already working for Current TV.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

2. I regularly watch Al Jazeera English -

and find it to be a very good news organization. Almost what CNN was like back in the day. Serious, in depth, wide ranging -- really good stuff.

[srican69]

5. who is your cable carrier?nt

[Hell Hath No Fury]

7. I have DISH --

I think you can also watch them online.

[davidwparker]

9. Same here.

Free Speech TV plays some of their programming. I've enjoyed it too.

[cascadiance]

11. I think LINK TV also carries them some as well..

I wonder what FSTV and LINK will carry once Al Jazeera America is up fully. I'm guessing they'll continue to carry it for a while and will be given free access by Al Jazeera for at least a while if Time Warner keeps Al Jazeera off the air. Not sure if FSTV or LINK is carried on Time Warner or not as I've long ago ditched cable. And you also get RT on Dish as well.

[TDale313]

3. Glad to hear it.

She's one of the few main stream media journalists I actually respect. Which of course means there's no place for her in the msm.

[srican69]

4. Soledad ... its time she came back on the idiot box..

[1-Old-Man]

6. Good. I look forward to hearing and seeing her again.

She has always seemed to me to be an intelligent lady who's views were well worth listening too and of course factual reporting helped a lot too. its good to see her going to a trustworthy news operation.

[kelliekat44]

8. They are going to have one helluva team...Can hardly wait. Watch out MSNBC, CNN

I link to al-Jazeera every day to find out what is really going on at home and abroad.

[JDPriestly]

10. Sounds interesting. I hope they have a lot of internet programming.

We don't subscribe to cable, just internet. And there are several reasons. For one thing, I don't want to pay for channels like Fox News and not get channels like MSNBC or Al Jazeera or other channels.

For another, cable is too expensive. We need to choose between internet or cable, and we prefer internet.

Third, is a bit of an extension of the first, we don't want to pay for the useless news about celebrities. If I know someone or I watch a show or movie with a certain star or written or directed by a certain person, I might look that person up on the internet, but I could care less about the everyday details of their personal life drummed into me hour by hour, day by day. It's annoying.

So, I'm looking forward to seeing Soledad on the internet if Al Jazeera puts her on.