On Wednesday, Al Jazeera, announced that their network just purchased Current TV, the floundering, left-leaning network founded by former Vice-President Al Gore.
Al Jazeera will end all Current TV programming and according to the New York Times: "start an English-language channel, which will be available in more than 40 million homes, with newscasts emanating from both New York and Doha, Qatar."
Al Jazeera is owned by the government of Qatar.
Since it began in 1996, the Arab network has garnered harsh criticism for its slanted coverage against Israel and the United States, as well as for airing messages from Muslim terrorist organizations such as al Queda after the 9/11 attacks.
Of course, the network does have fans in the U.S...
During last year's Egyptian coup, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. "You may not agree with it, but you feel like you're getting real news around the clock instead of a million commercials and, you know, arguments between talking heads and the kind of stuff that we do on our news which, you know, is not particularly informative to us, let alone foreigners."
As for the price, the NY Times reports:
Al Jazeera did not disclose the purchase price, but people with direct knowledge of the deal pegged it at around $500 million, indicating a $100 million payout for Mr. Gore, who owned 20 percent of Current. Mr. Gore and his partners were eager to complete the deal by Dec. 31, lest it be subject to higher tax rates that took effect on Jan. 1, according to several people who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Al Jazeera claims that antitrust regulators within the Obama administration have no objections to the deal.
Apparently, the network was blocked by the Bush administration from making a similar deal.
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