[Charles]

The biggest tarnish to AJ’s brand in the U.S. by far wasn’t just the hostage videos – it was the Bin Laden tapes that AJA periodically received and aired in the months and years after 9/11. And while Al Jazeera still certainly had a perception issue, I don’t know if it was as severe as people thought. By 2013, Al Jazeera had already developed a pretty reputable perception among Anglophone news junkies and power brokers.

I think the restrictive carriage deals were really what killed AJAM. Current TV had awful channel number placement and was a 4:3 signal. I also believe the agreements were so restrictive that AJAM couldn’t even post video online. Their website and social media profiles had no video. I think Al Jazeera even had to block the AJE livestream in the U.S. for a while. (I was living in France for part of that time, so my memory is a little hazy on when that stopped).

I also think even 2013 was too late to try to jump into the conventional U.S. cable news model. At best, AJAM was going to pull away a fraction of viewers from CNN and MSNBC. Trying to attract new viewers to traditional media is very difficult. NewsNation is a completely different thing, but they are having an equally challenging time trying to get anybody to watch.

I can’t help but wonder if Al Jazeera would have better success now launching a lower budget, streaming-only American channel not unlike what’s on NBC News Now and CBSN.