NBC’s Mike Viqueira Named White House Correspondent For Al Jazeera America

By Alex Weprin 

Al Jazeera America has named Mike Viqueira as its first White House correspondent.

Viqueira joins Al Jazeera America from NBC News, where he was a producer/correspondent covering Capitol Hill and other stories from the DC region.

Viqueira had been on the White House beat for four years, but when Peter Alexander joined Chuck Todd and Kristin Welker there in December, he was shifted back to Capitol Hill, where he had been based since 1998. The AJA gig returns Viqueira to the White House beat.

Advertisement

“This is a great opportunity, both because of Al Jazeera America’s commitment to the kind of straight-forward, hard-nosed journalism that all good reporters value, and because it’s tremendously exciting to be building something that will fill today’s critical need for real, unfiltered and fact-based news,” Viqueira said in a statement.

Viqueira joins other prominent hires, including CNN’s Ali Velshi, and Thomson Reuters executive John Meehan, who will oversee the channel’s business coverage.

More information below.

AL JAZEERA AMERICA NAMES MICHAEL VIQUEIRA WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT

NEW YORK – (June 5, 2013) — Al Jazeera America has hired former NBC correspondent and Emmy Award winner Michael Viqueira and as its White House correspondent.

Viqueira, who will be based out of Al Jazeera America’s Washington D.C. bureau, will cover White House daily press briefings, all presidential events and trips and other White House news and events.

“Michael Viqueira is a seasoned national correspondent with deep experience covering Washington politics,” said Ehab Al Shihabi, executive director of international operations for Al Jazeera and the senior executive in charge of developing Al Jazeera America. “Every political activity in the Capitol has an impact on the average American and his knowledge and extensive network of contacts will allow him to dig deeper to bring important news and information to light for the American public.”

Viqueira most recently reported from the White House for NBC’s “Today,” “Nightly News,” NBC Radio, MSNBC and MSNBC.com.

Viqueira joined NBC News in 1998 as a producer on Capital Hill and later became MSNBC’s chief congressional correspondent covering politics and legislation on Capitol Hill and occasionally contributing to general assignment stories. Prior to that, Viqueira was a news producer and on-air reporter in both English and Japanese for TV and radio in the Washington bureau of NHK, Japan’s largest broadcaster, where he was involved in research, news production and photojournalism.

Viqueira won two Emmy Awards for his coverage of the financial crisis and the 2008 elections and been awarded the Joan Barone Award for Excellence in Journalism. In 2005 he served as chairman of the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association.

“This is a great opportunity, both because of Al Jazeera America’s commitment to the kind of straight-forward, hard-nosed journalism that all good reporters value, and because it’s tremendously exciting to be building something that will fill today’s critical need for real, unfiltered and fact-based news,” Viqueira said.

ABOUT AL JAZEERA AMERICA

Al Jazeera America, which will launch in 2013, is the new U.S. news channel that will provide both domestic and international news for American audiences. It will be headquartered in New York City with additional bureaus in key locations across the United States.

Visit us online at http://www.aljazeera.com/america for all the latest updates on Al Jazeera America. You can also like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/aljazeeraamerica and follow us on Twitter @AJAM (www.twitter.com/ajam) and join the conversation using #AlJazeeraAmerica.

Advertisement