[aaronkrolik]

>And Al Jazeera America has not been free of controversy in recent months. In November, the news station’s general counsel, David W. Harleston, was suspended following a report in The New York Times that he did not appear to be licensed to practice law. In late December, Al Jazeera aired an hourlong documentary that linked some of the biggest stars in Major League Baseball and the National Football League to performance-enhancing drugs. The most prominent athlete mentioned in the report was the Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning, who angrily denied the report, calling it “complete garbage” and “totally made up.”

Lets not forget that they are being sued for libel

http://deadspin.com/ryan-howard-ryan-zimmerman-sue-al-jazeer...

[slg]

I surprised their is no discussion of that here. It might not be the most important story Al Jazeera had broken, but it was their biggest pop culture story in a country that often puts a huge pop culture emphasis on their news. The story has been mostly ignored by the mainstream American media and the people accused were more aggressive in their responses than similar athletes have been after similar reports. I can't remember the last time a news organization was immediately sued for libel after these type of accusations.

If you are being critical of Al Jazeera, it was a shoddy reporting job and didn't merit being published. If you are being generous, it shows they have almost no impact on American news cycles. Either way, the response wasn't good news for Al Jazeera.