The Wrap reports that a mere hour before Al Jazeera America launched Tuesday, cable provider AT&T U-Verse dropped the Qatar-financed cable news channel over a “contract dispute.” This is a loss of five million potential households.
As of July 2013, U-Verse boasted over 5 million TV customers, though not all of them are subscribers to the package that contains Al Jazeera America. AT&T would not specify how many are subscribers to that package.
Thus far, after only a few hours on the air, AJA’s launch is receiving widespread criticism. After boasting that AJA would deliver “fact-based, unbiased and in-depth news,” the network’s first guest was Stephen Walt, who is infamous for what the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg describes as “Jew baiting.”
AJA’s very first lead story Tuesday, was a sympathetic look at “anti-American terrorists detained on the battlefield for actions taken by U.S. medical personnel”.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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