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While it's still unclear what kind of "model" Al Jazeera America wants to pursue, it should be pretty obvious at this point what to avoid. Under the leadership of Al Gore, Current became a kind of lackluster version of hyper partisan MSNBC, only with poorer production values. Even liberal readers of the London Guardian conceded that Current had failed to connect, with one remarking "I found it to be painfully dull and weird. I felt at times like I was the only person watching this station. It was a bit like watching a college TV news show on public access television."

The odyssey of Current TV highlights some of the perils and pitfalls of cable news programming. Hoping to overcome mediocre ratings, Al Gore hired Keith Olbermann back in 2011. A pundit with "star power," Olbermann employed the same familiar packaging which had made him a household name on MSNBC. Stylistically, Olbermann combined a mix of jocularity, combativeness and ruthless sarcasm. Even with the new MSNBC pundit on board, however, Current continued to founder and its viewership remained puny.

During the Bush years, Olbermann's shoot from the hip style provided a much needed alternative voice to Fox News. However, the veteran pundit became slightly gimmicky over time and made little effort to innovate during his tenure at Current [a Jon Stewart impersonation on the The Daily Show successfully skewered Olbermann's hackneyed approach]. Far from undertaking a much needed overhaul at Current, Al Gore hired Democratic hacks Jennifer Granholm and Eliot Spitzer. In their new incarnation as media hosts, both sought to stylistically emulate MSNBC pundits. Ultimately, however, Gore's shakeup strategy proved futile and Current failed to gain any traction.

Though Olbermann later fell out with Current and left the network, the pundit's packaging style lives on at MSNBC. To a greater or lesser degree, many commentators on the network pursue Olbermann's penchant for sarcasm and combativeness. Take, for example, Rachel Maddow, an engaging host who also employs smugness toward the GOP and a kind of "wink,Custom laser marker systems for a wide variety of applications built by Control Micro Systems. wink" attitude towards her viewers, as if to say "aren't we superior to the right?" Unlike Fox, Maddow employs rigorous fact-checking and is much sharper than her conservative media counterparts. However, Maddow can also go too far at times with her entertaining style careening out of control into sheer wackiness.

Maddow, however, is more independent politically than other MSNBC hosts who can seem relentlessly partisan. Take, for example, Reverend Al Sharpton, who serves up a nightly dose of GOP abuses and misdeeds. Other commentators, too, seem more intent on throwing red meat to their liberal audience than actually raising the intellectual bar. Take for instance Lawrence O'Donnell, a commentator espousing radical politics who nevertheless seems to stick to the fairly tame and liberal MSNBC script.original handmade custom bobbleheads Head dolls made to look like the photo you provide to us. Like Olbermann, O'Donnell has developed a political fixation on Rush Limbaugh and runs countless segments refuting the right wing talk show host.

Yet another grave shortcoming of cable news programming in the U.S. is the networks' tendency to focus on domestic news to the detriment of international coverage. Indeed,Info Store about make your own bobblehead and Bobbleheads in general. it might be said that MSNBC is just as insular and parochial as Fox, with the liberal network rarely alerting its viewers to issues of vital international concern. MSNBC's failure in this regard is somewhat surprising in light of the network's ties to The Nation magazine, an outlet which historically did much to elevate the tenor of political and intellectual debate in the U.S.

In recent years, however, The Nation seems to have made a calculated decision to emphasize narrow-minded inside baseball in Washington as evidenced by the front page of the magazine's web site [when The Nation publishes a rare piece on Latin America, for that matter, it is cause for celebration]. In an effort to gain more visibility, the magazine has exported several of its columnists to MSNBC. Once ensconced at the network, The Nation crowd promptly conforms to the MSNBC template and tends to emphasize domestic issues while passing over international news.

With fewer and fewer cable options, the American public has been forced to turn elsewhere for international fare. To be sure, the U.S. viewing audience may tune into the decidedly middling CNN International. On the parent network, however, CNN has largely eschewed international coverage, let alone any kind of serious investigative journalism, in favor of inane political banter. Perhaps sensing the true mediocrity of its own programming, CNN seeks to distract the viewer with silly graphics and even holograms. Lacking a sense of direction, CNN has turned to new CEO Jeff Zucker in the hope of shifting the network's fortunes. A former NBC Executive, Zucker wants to transform CNN into a glorified entertainment vehicle modeled after the Today Show.

Surveying the lamentable state of cable news, it's easy to see what's wrong with the media milieu though it's far from clear what kind of new model al-Jazeera might want to pursue. Part of the problem lies in assessing the overall mood of the U.S. public and setting a bar for the viewing audience. On the left,British designers and Manufacturers of laser cutting and laser engraving machine. some have argued that if the American public simply had more facts and international journalistic excellence at its disposal then society would be galvanized and the media would finally succeed at prompting meaningful political change.

Such arguments, however, can seem overly idealistic or even obtuse in light of the lackluster capabilities of many Americans. Indeed, if Al Jazeera America wants to compete it may have to wrestle with issues of style as well as content. Stan Collender, a spokesman for al-Jazeera America, recently remarked to the Washington Post that the new channel would not be an opinion network or deal with celebrity news. "It's not going to be people screaming at each other,Site describes services including Plastic Mould." Collender said. Such declarations are music to the ears of cable consultant Cathy Rasenberg, who told the New York Times "there's a major hole right now that Al Jazeera can fill. And that is providing an alternative viewpoint to domestic news, which is very parochial."

Rasenberg, who has also worked with Al Jazeera on distribution issues in the past, also added however that "there is a limited amount of interest in international news in the United States." Al Jazeera itself admits that the new network is going to be something of a work in progress. Speaking to NPR recently, Al Jazeera Executive Producer Bob Wheelock remarked "our challenge is going to be to come up with new programming that is more tailored to a domestic U.S. audience."