WASHINGTON — Al-Jazeera America said Friday it has hired CNN business correspondent Ali Velshi, as the broadcaster gears up for its launch in the US market later this year.
“We are thrilled to secure Ali’s extraordinary talents and services,” said Ehab Al Shihabi, executive director of Al-Jazeera international operations.
“Al-Jazeera America will be bringing respected, independent reporting to its viewers, and that’s exactly the type of coverage Ali Velshi is known for.”
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| Velshi says he is thrilled to be joining Al-Jazeera America. |
The pan-Arab news giant announced earlier this year it was buying Current TV, a struggling U.S. cable channel, in a deal aimed at giving the Qatar-based broadcaster the scope to compete with major American TV networks.
The news channel, to be launched at an unspecified date later this year, will provide domestic and international news for American audiences. It will be headquartered in New York with bureaus in other cities.
Al Shihabi said Velshi and other Al-Jazeera America journalists “will be fiercely objective, substantively strong and absolutely committed to the truth.”
Velshi said in the statement he was “thrilled to be joining Al-Jazeera America, an organization that puts quality, fact-based journalism first.”
“I look forward to taking advantage of the extraordinary U.S. news-gathering capabilities the channel is building and working with such a diverse and talented group of colleagues to tell compelling stories that matter to Americans,” he said.
In acquiring Current, co-founded by former U.S. vice president Al Gore, Al-Jazeera will reach millions more U.S. homes than it does at present.
It will put the broadcaster, which is financed by the Qatari government, into closer competition with CNN and other news channels, as Al-Jazeera is currently only available on a handful of U.S. cable and satellite distributors.
Velshi has been CNN’s chief business correspondent, anchor of CNN Newsroom, and host of other programs.
He was born in Kenya and raised in Toronto, according to his CNN profile, and wrote a 2009 book, “Gimme My Money Back: Your Guide to Beating the Financial Crisis.”
Al Jazeera to open bureau in Detroit
Al Jazeera, the Arab owned international network announced Thursday that it will open a bureau in Detroit that is officially expected begin operating in September, according to a statement released by a representative from the network.
While metro-Detroit is home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the country, the network says that’s not what influenced its decision to open a bureau here.
The move is being made because of the region is home to the auto industry, and there would be no better place to cover it than here.
In a report a spokesman for Al Jazeera said the network couldn’t cover the Midwest and the base of the auto industry without being in Detroit. The new channel will be called Al Jazeera America. The spokesman made it clear that it will not be a channel about Arab Americans.
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