Perhaps you, too, have been feeling a bit forlorn lately. After all, the news that greets you every day goes something like this: an attack, or two, using bombs or guns or machetes or knives, by Muslims, somewhere in the world, from Jakarta to Mumbai to Paris to San Bernardino, with lots of stops in between, and the killers, if they say anything at all, explain that they are dutifully following the dictates of Islam, as found in Qur’an and Hadith and Sira, and then, of course, there follows a mind-dizzying display of official denials, all over the Western world, denials that any of these many attacks by Muslims, that any of that allahu-akbaring and citing of Islamic texts could possibly have anything to do with Islam. But you’ve read, and studied, and correctly concluded otherwise — sufficient unto the day is the Muslim evil thereof — and so upon you a kind of despair descends.
Now comes news of something that I think will cheer you up. Al Jazeera has just announced that it will shut down entirely its American operation — Al Jazeera America — in April. You’ve heard about Al Jazeera America when it bought out the cable channel Current TV, and took over its American subscribers. One of the owners of Current TV was that famous environmentalist Al Gore, who stood to make $100 million from the sale. He claimed that the sale was a Good Thing, that far from being a propaganda organ of the waddling emir of little Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Al Jazeera America “gave voice to those who are not typically heard,” and what’s more, “spoke truth to power.” He continued to praise Al Jazeera for quite some time, as a “really distinguished and effective news organization” in 2012, but by 2014, he didn’t quite see the station the same way, and he was now suing Al Jazeera for being “underhanded” and guilty of fraud, because, you see, Al Jazeera didn’t pay Al Gore all that Al Gore thought he had coming to him.
Apparently the American public did not agree that Al Jazeera was a “distinguished” and “effective” news channel that “spoke truth to power,” and Al Jazeera continuously lost money and audience. News reports about AJAM did not inspire confidence. The latest is a lawsuit by Shannon High-Bassalik, AJAM’s former senior vice-president of programming and documentaries, who said that she “witnessed the channel abandon ‘journalistic integrity’ in order to ‘advance a pro-Arabic/Middle Eastern agenda often at the expense of Jewish people.'” She further charged that “AJAM management invoked the conspiracy theory that the 9/11 terror attack was a CIA plot,” and in her suit detailed “what she said were blatantly discriminatory practices against women and non-Arab employees.”
And the lawsuits, and the firings, continue apace. From Wikipedia: “On April 28, 2015, Matthew Luke, Al Jazeera America’s former Supervisor of Media and Archive Management, filed a US$15 million lawsuit against his former employers over unfair dismissal. Luke alleged that he had been unfairly dismissed by the network after he had raised concerns with the human resource division that his boss, Osman Mahmud, the Senior Vice-President of Broadcast Operations and Technology, discriminated against female employees and made anti-Semitic remarks…. In an unrelated development, two female Al Jazeera America employees—Diana Lee, the Executive Vice-President for Human Resources, and Dawn Bridges, the Executive Vice President for Communications, had resigned that week.” Just google “Al Jazeera and lawsuits” for much more.
Perhaps this every-which-way degringolade at Al Jazeera America will put you in mind of BridgesTV, the other Muslim television channel that was aimed at an American audience. It was founded in 2004 by a Pakistani-American, Muzzamil S. Hassan. His wife Aasiya had urged him to develop “an American Muslim media where her kids could grow up feeling really strong about their identity as an American Muslim.” BridgesTV, according to an early press release, “gives American Muslims a voice and will depict them in everyday, real life situations…..Every day on television we are barraged by stories of a ‘Muslim extremist, militant, terrorist, or insurgent.’ …But the stories that are missing are the countless stories of Muslim tolerance, progress, diversity, service and excellence that Bridges TV hopes to tell.” Those were the heady days of 2004; by February 2009, Muzzammil S. Hassan had decided that Aasiya just wouldn’t do, and he decapitated her right at the station while their two small children, strapped into their car seats, waited outside. BridgesTV shut for three months, then reopened and limped along for a while without its founder and CEO, but finally shut down for good in 2012.
Nothing quite so dramatic explains the demise of Al Jazeera America. Not Al Gore’s claims of its being “underhanded” and a “fraud,” not Shannon High-Bassalik’s claims that the station’s management “advances a pro-Arabic/Middle Eastern agenda often at the expense of Jewish people” and “invoked the conspiracy theory that the 9/11 terror attack was a CIA plot” and employed “blatantly discriminatory practices against women and non-Arab employees.”
Possibly the explanation for AJAM’s closure is to be found not in the failure of the station to attract much of anything except lawsuits, but in the colossal drop in the price of oil, and a slightly-less-colossal drop in the price of natural gas. Even rich little Qatar is affected. Whatever the reason for AJAM’s closing now, the news of that closing is something that I think — as I wrote in the second paragraph above — will cheer you, as it did me, up. God knows we all deserve it.

jihad3tracker says
Al Jazeera is gone, and that is certainly welcome. But there are a couple of dozen American mainstream-media print and web propagandist / jihad excusers still around. The war to predominate in clueless minds is far from over.
mortimer says
THE CLUELESS CLASS CONTINUES THEIR RETREAT…
…they started by saying, ‘Religion of Peace’ then they retreated from that, then they said ‘Nothing to do with Islam’, then they retreated some more, and now they say, ‘MUSLIMS NEED TO LEARN OUR VALUES!’
This last claim totally shatters the abandoned positions of the Leftists as they fight against the inevitable conclusion that ISLAM IS FOR SAVAGES!
Charlie says
???
Georg says
Thanks for pointing this out, Mortimer.
And for anyone despairing, just look at Denmark. They have reeled in the liberal Looney Tunes and appear to be heading toward a normal, pragmatic society.
Jerry says
Not to worry.
They still have a spokesperson in the White House.
I wonder if you could guess his name.
In future, some of the editorials and press statements
would come directly from the Offal Offfice, and be carried
the various networks for free.
Golem2 says
I will miss it as a great source of unintentional humor.
Chabuco says
Allahu Akbar!
http://s16.postimg.org/unqyr999v/giphy_1.gif
Georg says
Well said!!
Karen says
As Nelson would say: Smell ya later, Al-Jazeera!
Georg says
Glad you all liked, been waiting a few for this! But surely enough, the truth walks along and that’s all there is to it. All best to the bravest counterjihad!!
Charlie says
???
Judi says
HA HA, very appropriate?
John C. Barile says
A harbinger of better days, perhaps. If Islam-as-universal-frame-of-reference is unappealing and unmarketable in the larger world, then the hidden hand of consumer choice in the open marketplace will sideline all its works and pomps and empty promises.
gravenimage says
So true, John–much as it enrages Muslims, they can’t–not *yet*, anyway–just impose their Islamic bs on us. And their attempts at Da’wa–which Al Jazeera America was certainly a form of–goes over like a lead balloon with most Americans.
A bit belated, but a Happy New Year to you and yours.
John C. Barile says
Thank you, GI. A very bright New Year to you, dear.
Georg says
That sums it up perfectly, John. The only Islamophobia I’ve ever seen is Islam’sphobia of the free-market of ideas.
marian says
“degringolade”?! Great stuff. Have you sent that to Bill O’Reilly for his “word of the day” yet?
Keep drinkin’ that degringolade
Comcast never provided AJAM in my non-premium package, but it did used to carry PeaceTV. With that lovely Doctor Zakir Naik, the anti-Joel Osteen
gravenimage says
True, Marian–Hugh Fitzgerald is one of the few writers who regularly sends me to consult the dictionary. And his word usage is never gratuitous, but an intrinsic part of his excellent in-depth analysis.
I’m so glad to see him regularly contributing to Jihad Watch again.
nacazo says
Is that the one where you stop being a gringo???…..
ok i looked it up too. quick breakdown.
gravenimage says
Hugh Fitzgerald: Goodbye to Al Jazeera America
……………………
I just heard about this yesterday.
I had not heard that Al Gore was suing them–but it does not surprise. Why should Muslims *ever* give “filthy Infidels” what they owe them?
Which leads us to the flood of other law suits–it seems Al Jazeera treated dhimmi journalists really badly–especially women, not surprisingly.
The idea that a mouthpiece for the obscenely wealthy Emir of Qatar “speaks truth to power” is an idea that could only be held by a far Leftist–someone who believes all power is Western and white.
I think what finally caused Al Jazeera to pull the plug here is that dhimmi as most cable TV news is, that Americans were still not poised to accept this level of pro-Islam, anti-Western and antisemitic bs. Simply, Cable and Satellite companies did not find that Al Jazeera America was a big seller.
I myself will perversely somewhat miss Al Jazeera America’s fabulously slanted coverage–although I know from everything I’ve heard that–unsurprisingly–it was *much* toned down from their openly pro-“Islamist” Arabic language coverage.
I appreciate this obit from Hugh Fitzgerald. Al Jazeera America, we hardly knew ye…
Charlie says
Yeppi@? As a PARODY for Laughing and Fun and some #ISLAMONAZIS perspectives they were just fine… ?
Hope says
Ha! Best news I have heard since that Florida gun shop guy got CAIR’s “discrimination” lawsuit thrown out of court. I blocked that Al Jihada channel at my house as soon as the traitor Al Gore tried to impose it on me. Now they are finally taking it down. Go peddle your anti-American, anti-Israeli filth someplace else. And take the Crescent News Network with you while you’re at it.
eduardo odraude says
“God knows we all deserve it.”
Thanks to Mr. Fitzgerald for the good news.
Charli Main says
” but in the colossal drop in the price of oil, and a slightly-less-colossal drop in the price of natural gas. Even rich little Qatar is affected.”
Arab Muslims have always been not much more than ignorant goat and sheep herders living in mud huts and tents.
All the apparent glitz and glamour of these shyte holes has been bought with Western oil money and Western technology. When the oil money stops flowing, these ignorant goat herders will go back to their natural state—— living in mud huts and tents
Infidel from Down Under says
Very pertinent point.
For all the glitz everything that is designed ,built ,operated and managed in the oil rich Arab Islamic states is done by Westerners whether be architects and engineers who create their buildings, the pilots who fly their planes,the executives who run their enterprises down to the dentists who fill their teeth.
A guy from Sydney I know who worked at senior level in one of their major airlines described his former Arab bosses as “plain stupid” saying he and his fellow execs had to explain and present things to them in the most simplistic of terms and even then they could not grasp it properly .
And worth noting that the recent large expansion of Mecca was mostly all planned and managed by non muslim Westerners who got unprecedented exemptions to enter the city so as to undertake their work.. Ir seems out of the worlds 1.2 billion muslims there was no one who had the skill levels to do the job. What does that say?.
gravenimage says
All true, Charli and Infidel from Down Under. Muslims have never really created anything of use, and they regard even the highest level and most creative workers as little better than slaves.
The “Prophet” himself despised any sort of productive labor.
carpediadem says
It says that WEsyernerse are so ready to sell themselvesw for oil money that they don’t care that they are helping the “stupid” malicious caliph-bringers climb to a point where they can run the world and these same Westerners under Islam.
So tell me who the REAL stupids are.
miriamrove says
May Allah be with Aljizzara!!! M
revereridesagain says
Thank you for so accurately summing up what the average day feels like for those of us who know the the truth about Islam and refuse to drink the kool-aid. Today as it happens has been so bad that even the wonderful news of the well-deserved demise of Al Jazeera America is but one ray of sunlight, evoking a wan smile…
Nah. Make that a big fat wicked grin!
And praise to the Florida Family Association for lending their efforts to shooing hundreds of advertisers off the AJA sinking ship like so many bilge rats. Better to wise up late than not at all!
http://floridafamily.org/full_article.php?article_no=532
So, The Donald having recited the lyrics to Al Wilson’s great song “The Snake” at a rally the other night, I’d like to dedicate this rendition by the great Al himself to all those older-but-wiser former AJA advertisers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_ZBqpEUbik
Buh-bye AJA. Come back when you can’t stay so long.
Marken says
Great news! The Florida Family Association has been mass emailing execs from any and all companies that chose to advertise on Al Jezeera America have had 100’s of companies pull their ads. Here is the opening paragraphs of one such letter they blasted out yesterday:
In a recent survey conducted by AlJazeera.net, the website for the Al Jazeera Arabic channel, respondents overwhelmingly support the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, with 81% voting “YES” on whether they approved of ISIS’s conquests in the region. The poll, which asked in Arabic, “Do you support the organizing victories of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)?” has generated over 38,000 responses thus far, with only 19% of respondents voting “NO” to supporting ISIS.
“I am very disappointed that Personal Capital Advisors Corporation is advertising XHose on Al Jazeera America. Al Jazeera, whose leaders espouse hate for Israel, who showed disdain for Paris murder victims, is a news company that is owned by the non-democratic, monarch styled emirate of Qatar who allows wealthy citizens to financially support ISIS, supports the Muslim Brotherhood, backs the head of Hamas, espouses Islamic Sharia law and does not afford citizens freedom of the press……….”
They probably will keep educating CEOs right into April
My Shari'a Moor says
Marken…THANX!
I’ve been sending emails on behalf of FFA for 3 years to stop Western companies from advertising on AJ & so far 90% of them (249 of 270) have stopped their ad buys!
It feels good to hurt AJ where it COUNTS: in the ol’ WALLET!
FFA deserves GREAT credit for AJ’s COLLAPSE in the US media market!
Lan Astaslem!
Wellington says
Another finely written article by Hugh Fitzgerald. The first paragraph is particularly spot on and should be savored. And, oh yes, good news indeed. Chalk one up for truth this time instead of for falsehood, falsehood, of course, being something Islam and its dhimmi defenders are steeped in.
epistemology says
I won’t shed a tear. It’s a reason to rejoice. But it’s only in America, I wish whole station would tumble down, hit by lightnings or whatever. But that’s only a dream.
You’re right this article is a good analysis. I particularly like that Hugh Fitzgerald reminded us of BridgesTV, where the boss beheaded his wife right at the station. Back then I thought that was awful, but now I know that beheading is a muzzie habit, we have to get used to. It’s part of their un-culture. Excuse my sarcasm.
All the best and take good care my friend
Karen says
This was thrilling news, and I emailed a number of people about it to spread the happiness.
I hate to see people lose their jobs, but how can one do great journalism at a Middle East-biased, anti-America, anti-woman propaganda machine? I’d say it was a great day when this child of the world’s leading fake news organization and friend to bin Laden shut down.
If you are interested in how China is spreading it’s propaganda across Washington and elsewhere by buying radio stations, see this Reuters story:
http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/china-radio/
Infidel from Down Under says
“Allahs will”
Huck Folder says
allahs will
allahswill
allah swill
Champ ッ says
This is *great* news! …and I wish the same were true for islam & company leaving America, too. Better still — islam leaving planet Earth for good. Aw, I can dream …
Wellington says
“Better still—–islam leaving planet Earth for good.”
A beautiful sentiment, Champ, though I don’t think the new mayor of Philadelphia would get this, or the new Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, who condemned Donald Trump for calling for at least a temporary halt to further Muslim immigration to the US.
Neither would John McCain of famous “the Islam” statement, nor Lyndsey Graham who also remains clueless about Islam. Then there are the Democrats at the national level who are OK with boycotting Benjamin Netanyahu speaking before Congress last March but seem nothing wrong with two representatives of CAIR attending Obama’s final State of the Union Address this very week.
Upside-down world. Who of sense and accurate knowledge (as opposed to the bogus stuff which tries to pass for knowledge nowadays) could doubt it?
Wellington says
That’s “see nothing wrong” and not “seem nothing wrong.”
Champ says
Great comment, and all true, Wellington. So with the list of names you’ve mentioned above, then I’m certainly living a pipe dream, aren’t I? Indeed. Also, there’s no shortage of enablers whom are ready, willing and able to assist in the spread of evil islam — for shame!
Champ says
ps …
However I am very delighted that Al Jazeera will shut down its American operation — so I’ll take whatever good news anti-jihad gets! ^(*-*)^
Sam says
I think this was due to “climate change”.
However, I will not feel sorry for Al Gore if he is bankrupt.
grace says
We still get it here in Australia, although it’s slipped in. I don’t watch Arab news but as the ABC is so pro islam, that I hardly watch that either. The only way to get news is to search the internet.
Wellington says
I have to wonder, grace, if the percentage of Australians who no longer take the ABC seriously is rising as is the case in Canada and Britain, with the CBC and BBC respectively. I sure hope so since freedom and true equality under the law depend upon it because these public and tax-supported organizations time and time again shill for the spiritual fascism which is Islam (I think self-loathing, which is a special kind of ignorance, and ignorance in general have much to do with this).
As an American, I am faced with the tax-supported media outlets, the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR) approaching, though not yet there, what already exists in Australia, Britain and Canada. Fortunately, here in America, great counters to PBS and NPR exist, not the least being talk radio, a still completely free Internet and a Fox News channel which often times still stumbles into the truth.
I wish you the best Down Under, but “the best” will have to include a realistic and informed knowledge of Islam and doing away with the monopoly on news that publically funded, completely liberally controlled, outlets enjoy.
The greatest enemy of Islam is traditional Western Civilization. However, the greatest ally of Islam in our silly world of today are sundry leftists in the West selling Western Civilization down the river, found in (and usually actually controlling) the media, academia and the political realm. Oh yeah, it’s a one-sided, fixed game, with totalitarian thought written all over things, but the modern Western leftist elite is so utterly clueless that they don’t see this at all. Fitting though, since such elite see virtually nothing which is rooted in truth.
Rob says
Ain’t the market great.
Heh Heh!
DP111 says
Price of oil is falling. As it is, the Islamic house of cards is tottering. If Saudi Arabia and Qatar cant dislodge Assad and get a direct pipeline to Europe, the evil axis of Saudi Arabia and Qatar will fall.
It would be nice to see ISIS rampaging through the Saudi streets and palaces, looking for fat warthogs. We can then clean up afterwards, and finance the repatriation of Muslims to lands they once came from.
mortimer says
Fitzgerald wrote: “…there follows a mind-dizzying display of official denials (about Jihad), all over the Western world, denials that any of these many attacks by Muslims, that any of that allahu-akbaring and citing of Islamic texts could possibly have anything to do with Islam.”
Western elites have made no study of the JIHAD DOCTRINE, the ABROGATION DOCTRINE, the KAFIR DOCTRINE or the VIGILANTE DOCTRINE and yet they claim they are EXPERTS on Islam who know MUCH MORE than those who have read and studied the Koran, Sira, hadiths, canonical commentaries and Sharia law. The elitist claim to know Islam without study is self-evidently false, presumptuous, unsubstantiated and indefensable.
Jenny H says
Mortimer.
What is the vigilante doctrine?
mortimer says
Shannon High-Basalik said,“AJAM management invoked the conspiracy theory that the 9/11 terror attack was a CIA plot…”
This shows conclusively that the CONSPIRACY THEORIES denying Arab involvement in 9/11 are GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED.
Mo says
It does cheer me, thank you!
Charles R.L. Power says
I will do my usual and leave a comment no one will like. I actually watched AJAM. On screen, it was pretty good reporting, covering many stories you wouldn’t find on other news programs. It reported fairly on Islamic terror incidents, and never denigrated Israel, at least when I was watching. It did occasionally cover Islamic practices clearly at odds with Western values, rather more than I’ve noticed on other networks. This of course says nothing about its employment practices or behind-the-scenes comments of its executives. But I for one (and probably I’m the only one here) am sorry to see it go.
Golem2 says
You must have been watching a different channel.
13pr108 says
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Georg says
You’re too kind..
BlueRaven says
“the news of that closing is something that I think — as I wrote in the second paragraph above — will cheer you, as it did me, up. God knows we all deserve it.”
BR – Cheered me up from the moment I heard the news. It cheered me up a lot more when I heard their are tons of law suits against it. Indeed this kind of news is a step in the right direction for a man.
Dave J says
If they were inadvertently exposing the real biases of Islam and losing money in the process then I’m sad to see them go.
Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says
Thanks, Hugh, for mentioning the earlier degringolade of Bridges TV, whose studio was within bicycling distance from my house. Such loss of Islamic life is always an opportunity to be instructed about the religion of peace, as detailed in
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzzammil_Hassan .
Especially rich is the passage “Khalid Qazi, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council of Western New York and a friend of the couple, said that Hassan “was worried about the station’s future” and added “Domestic violence is despicable, and Islam condones it in no way whatever.””
Dr. Qazi (an internist) seems to have forgotten Quran 4:34.
This message has been brought to you by De-gringo-ade, the refreshing Anglo-free beverage.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/d%C3%A9gringolade
BC says
You do not give credit to the tireless work of Florida Family Association, who by running an email campaign directed at advertisers on AJ, denied them advertising revenue..
Well done to all who participated
isabella van der westhuizen says
Jeez he cut his wife head off
I had not heard that story before
Quite amazing
gravenimage says
Yes–this appalling story was covered widely here at Jihad Watch.
ElderlyZionist says
The Emir of Qatar recognizes that he has utterly failed to propagandize the American public, and has given up.
We win.
Good for us.
Huck Folder says
The good emir will have to go back to his night job,
carving up clitori, a la mode;
or is that a la mode?
Huck Folder says
a la mo
remember that.
PB says
Good news!
Marco says
Indeed, this is a great news. One of the reasons, amongst the others, for AJ shutting down in the US is that Americans simply have understood what Al Jazeera is all about. They are much more smarter than we Europeans are 🙂
Mark says
Please view share and give a thumbs up to the following documentary. It really exposes Islam. https://youtu.be/t_Qpy0mXg8Y
steve says
Good, their main ‘interviewer’ is Medhi Hasan who believes that some wretch called Mohammed rode a white horse to the moon and split it with a sword….see utube… Richard Dawkins the white horse debate.
Matthieu Baudin says
“…Whatever the reason for AJAM’s closing now, the news of that closing is something that I think — as I wrote in the second paragraph above — will cheer you, as it did me, up. God knows we all deserve it…”
The reasonable minded people born to moslem families that I’ve befriended have almost to a person been hostile to the AJ network because they have smelt it out as not just an apologist for Jihadist causes but as a promoter of Islamic supremacism.
Eric says
Yes, there was sometimes anti Israeli slant to news pieces, but I have found it delivers the most accurate international news of any available. I think the name puts some people off. The alternative is mostly fox-like or MSNBC-like stations. I appreciate getting a perspective of those from outside the U.S. regarding international matters. Of course there were things going on that I was not aware of, so maybe it should disappear.