LONDON -- I want my Al-Jazeera.
That's the message from the execs at the Arab TV net's English-language channel, who have launched website IWantAJE.net.
The site, which targets North American auds, is aimed at dispelling myths about the channel. Some of the accusations countered on the site include the claims that Al-Jazeera English, which launched in November 2006, is anti-American, anti-Semitic and supports terrorism.
The move is part of an attempt to finally get comprehensive cable carriage in the U.S., where auds can see the channel only on Buckeye Cable in Ohio, Burlington Telecom in Vermont, Washington Cable in D.C. and nationally via satellite provider Globecast WorldTV. Al-Jazeera English also has its own YouTube channel.
Al-Jazeera English execs are also formally applying for cable and satellite carriage in Canada to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission. If successful, Al-Jazeera execs have committed to opening its first Canadian news bureau.
Because of a delayed launch in 2006, Al-Jazeera English missed out on covering that summer's conflict between Israel and militant Lebanese group Hezbollah. But execs at the channel were able to cover December's conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza
The channel's coverage of the war, which left more than 1,000 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead, saw a spike in ratings and also turned its Gaza-based correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin -- one of the few journos actually reporting from inside the war zone -- into something of a heartthrob across the Arab world.
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