Al Jazeera's (Global) Mission

Josh Rushing has been called a "turncoat," a "pawn," and the "biggest boob in America." Bloggers have suggested that a special-ops team "take him out." On Fox, Sean Hannity posted his face above the caption traitor. It has been a very long year. So how did this earnest, blue-eyed ex-Marine--a former press attaché to General Tommy Franks, no less--invite such vilification? Early last year, he agreed to become an on-air personality on a new 24-hour global news channel. Trouble is, Rushing's new gig isn't on CNN or ABC, and it certainly isn't on Fox. He's about to become the face of Al Jazeera International. The new channel is a sibling of Al Jazeera, the Arabic-language channel based in Qatar, which captured the world's attention during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

That station made the Bush administration apoplectic by broadcasting images of war casualties--dead civilians, the burned corpses of American contractors hanging from a bridge in Fallujah--at the same time the United States was touting its precision bombing. It has also been the conduit for a string of videotapes from Osama bin Laden and his right-hand man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and is the preferred outlet of various radical Islamic groups for putting footage of tearful, pleading hostages before the world.

But Al Jazeera International (AJI) has grander ambitions than to be simply the enfant terrible of the Middle East. For starters, it will broadcast in English, giving it a much broader reach; its staffers are imports from upmarket operations such as the BBC, CNN, and Associated Press Television News (APTN); and it professes a rigorous code of ethics and the loftiest news-gathering goals. "The mission of Al Jazeera International is to provide accurate and impartial news with a global, international perspective," says Will Stebbins, formerly an APTN regional editor and now AJI's Washington bureau chief. "News in the U.S. clearly comes from a very culturally specific viewpoint that eclipses many important stories and issues. We want to provide different points of view from around the world."

The format for the channel, which is currently scheduled to launch in late spring, is itself innovative. Instead of being run out of a central command post, AJI's news day--and news management--will follow the sun: Programming will begin in Doha, Qatar, which will likely host a 12-hour chunk of the day, then shift to London for a four-hour segment, then to Washington, DC, for a 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. (local-time) slot, and finally to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The top of each hour will be hard news; the back half, analysis, chat shows, and documentaries, some of it generated by viewers. There will be only one feed, so viewers worldwide will all see the same broadcast at the same time.

More intriguing, each news desk will be run independently, with the mandate to report international news through its own lens. Imagine, says Stebbins, by way of illustration, the follow-up to Bush's recent State of the Union speech: In Doha, broadcasters might have lined up reaction to the president's warning to Hamas to disarm; in Kuala Lumpur, analysis might have dialed in on Bush's comments on protectionism; and in London, on his admonishment of Iran. And in the States, Stebbins says, instead of the usual pundits, he might have rung up Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's fiery president, or polled Mexicans on Bush's remarks on immigration enforcement.

AJI has already recruited some journalistic heavy hitters for its masthead: Dave Marash, formerly of ABC's Nightline, will be an anchor in the Washington, DC, broadcast center; Sir David Frost, the ex-BBC fixture, will serve as éminence grise in London; Riz Kahn, formerly of CNN International, will bring his Q&A format to the channel; and Veronica Pedrosa, named "Best News Anchor" at the Asian Television Awards in 2004 for her work on CNN International, will hold down the desk in Kuala Lumpur. And, of course, Rushing will extend his 15 minutes of fame.

Just how famous Rushing, 33, becomes in America depends, however, on whether AJI can even find a distributor here, let alone an audience. Al Jazeera, after all, saw one staffer convicted in Spain of running money for Al Qaeda. Its name is so radioactive that it all but precludes debate.

But AJI may actually represent a tremendous opportunity for the United States. Anti-American sentiment, fed by everything from the Iraq war to our position on global warming, has become a concern at both the U.S. State Department and American companies looking to do business overseas. A recent Zogby International poll of key executives at large U.S. multinationals found that most rated the potential impact of anti-Americanism on U.S. companies at between three and four on a scale of one to five, with one representing "no problem" and five an "extreme threat." While some execs considered their brand immune to trouble because they hire local people wherever they operate, there was deep and unanimous concern among thought leaders about a long-term threat to business.

"Given that the global landscape will continue to change with the rise of China, India, and other countries, the United States needs all the help it can get."