In the wake of overwhelmingly positive critical and public reaction to its coverage of the upheaval in The Middle East, al-Jazeera English has begun negotiating with Comcast, the nation's largest cable operator, hoping finally to land an outlet on its system. In an interview with Reuters, al-Jazeera English managing director Al Anstey indicated that the talks with Comcast represent the first opening wedge in the Qatar-based network's efforts to be embraced by U.S. cable companies who have shunned it after leaders in the Bush administration complained that it was a propaganda outlet for anti-Americanism in general and al-Qaeda in particular. In recent weeks, it has been denounced by leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya as pro-American and pro-Israel. Only today (Wednesday) the New-York-based Committee to Protect Journalists reported that al-Jazeera reporter Atef al-Atash had disappeared after filing a report from Libya's second-largest city, Benghazi.

23/02/2011