Al Jazeera Talks to Comcast About Customers Being Offered Airtime

Three representatives from Al Jazeera English met last week with high-level programming executives at Comcast's headquarters in Philadelphia to discuss the possible addition of Al Jazeera English to the cable giant's lineup.

Al Jazeera English is currently not widely accessible on American television and is talking with many cable operators to expand its reach, according to Al Anstey, managing director of Al Jazeera English.

Comcast, which provides cable for 20 percent of American homes, is already providing limited access to Al Jazeera English. Some 2.4 million Americans in Washington, D.C.; Toledo, Ohio; and Burlington, Vt. are able to see the network through MHz networks broadcasted by Comcast, Verizon Fios and Cox.

Anstey described the meeting with Comcast as "fruitful." Comcast spokeswoman, Alana Davis, e-mailed a statement that the company does not comment on programming meetings.

Al Jazeera English initiated the discussion at the peak of its popularity since its launch in 2010. The network has experienced an upswing in viewership in recent weeks as a result of its coverage of the demonstrations sweeping through the Middle East.

"Even the White House watches Al Jazeera now," Anstey boasted, despite condemnation of the network as anti-American by the Bush administration.

The website has experienced a 2,500 percent increase in traffic in the past month, according to Anstey, who noted that "more than 10 million minutes of video, with 45 percent of that traffic from the United States, are streamed daily on our website."

The Al Jazeera team came here armed with 13,000 e-mails, packed in four boxes, from Comcast customers asking for Al Jazeera English, said Anstey. Reminiscent of the successful "I Want My MTV" campaign, Al Jazeera English started a similar campaign called "Demand Al Jazeera English." Ads in major newspapers and a section of the website facilitated the e-mails.

Morton Klein, who has appeared on the network more than a dozen times, is opposed to Comcast adding the broadcast to its lineup. The president of the Zionist Organization of America said of his experiences: "Every time that I have been on the network, the moderator is anti-Israel. Usually, I appear in a panel of three, and the other two guests are anti-Israel."

Klein is planning to protest to the Jewish executives of the company, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and executive vice president David Cohen.

Klein said: "Just as Comcast would not add a network sponsored by the Klu Klux Klan, which spews hatred towards African-Americans, they should not add Al Jazeera English to their lineup, which is viciously anti-Israel."

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the school of public policy of the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania, disagrees.

"It is healthy for citizens in a democracy to see other cultures and viewpoints," she said. "I would like to see more news from Africa."

She is not as troubled as some by Al Jazeera's perceived anti-American bias, saying, "we should not be so ethnocentric. Americans should see how they and their policies are viewed around the world."

Jamieson said she hadn't studied the station enough to assess whether it was anti-Israel, but she said that if it was, it could be "counterbalanced with a pro-Israel station."

Arlen Specter, who was a fierce advocate for Israel while he was in the Senate, is also not opposed to the addition of Al Jazeera English to the cable.

"We cannot be ostriches and stick our heads in the sands," he said. "We need to know what people are saying about us."

Anstey, born in London and raised in the Church of England, asserted that his network "is the only one that filters the news through an international prism." CNN, he added, "reports internationally, but through an American filter."

Anstey acknowledged that the "network is financed by the Finance Ministry of Qatar," but he said he "swears with his hand over his heart" that Qatar has not influenced any reporting. He cites as evidence the story that Al Jazeera English aired on the deplorable working conditions of immigrants to Qatar.

He also said Qatar's government did not influence his decision not to cover the brutal rape of CBS reporter Lara Logan while reporting on the unrest in Cairo. Instead, he argued that many others were hurt during the demonstrations, and the network "couldn't cover everyone that was hurt."

Anstey, who started at CBS, asserted that there is no anti-Israel bias at his station, and that he "would not tolerate it."

When asked about the inaccuracies about Israel in the Al Jazeera English produced video, "Israel: The Truth From Within," which is sold on the network's website, he said that he had not seen the video that critics say exaggerated the brutality of the Israeli soldiers without showing the provocation.

He countered that the relatively new bureau chief in Jerusalem came from Associated Press television and that their main Israeli correspondent, Tony Birtley, is an award-winning journalist who made his mark in Bosnia. Anstey also said that Al Jazeera English has been available in Israel since 2007.