ABSTRACT
The irony was that A1 Jazeera English had an incredibly uneasy sense of what it would be. Staffers and executives promised it wouldn't be a translated version of al-Jazeera. The network lured away premiere journalistic talent like David Frost and ABC News's Dave Marash: all of a sudden, A1 Jazeera anchors would be posh Brits and even Jews. A1 Jazeera English wasn't interested in running the opinionated shouting matches that have given its parent network a large part of its identity, opting instead for hour-long documentaries. In one sense, al-Jazeera can hardly be surprised at the reaction it has received in America. Since its inception in 1996, the network has refused to be an Arabiclanguage copy of Western media sensibilities. 'BBC Arabic' is a derisive term among its reporters and executives, denoting to them a supine, inauthentic approach to the news that treats Arab perspectives as marginal.
