Around the Institute

Launch of Al Jazeera America

August 20, 2013

Al Jazeera America is launching a cable news network in the United States today, August 20. According to The New York Times, the network will offer the following: “Fourteen hours of straight news every day. Hard-hitting documentaries. Correspondents in oft-overlooked corners of the country. And fewer commercials than any other news channel.” During this summer’s 2013 Aspen Ideas Festival Ehab Al Shihabi, the senior executive in charge of developing Al Jazeera America, spoke about what can be expected from the new channel and how it will compete as a fact-based network in a world of opinion-based cable news:

Watch Al Shihabi’s full conversation with Marketplace’s Kai Ryssdal.