Anything that can provide a new view of the world outside of the US is a good thing. The current top news providers have been failing for years so a shakeup can't hurt. When the US media went along with the invasion of Iraq, they proved how little they had to offer. LA Times:
Tony Burman, Al Jazeera’s head of strategy for the Americas, said traffic to the satelite network's English-language website, where a live stream of its broadcast is available, increased 2,500% during the past week of Egypt coverage. He said up to 60% of the traffic was from the United States.
In a commentary in Saturday's Toronto Star, Burman noted that during that period, an estimated 7 million Americans have watched 50 million minutes of Al Jazeera coverage.
California-based Link TV, watched by more than 33 million American households via the DirecTV and Dish satellite systems, has been broadcasting up to 12 hours of Al Jazeera coverage daily, said Burman, former managing director of Al Jazeera English and a former editor-in-chief of CBC News.
