AJE Launch: Initial Impressions

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Al Jazeera English’s premiere featured stories from Russia, Israel, Afghanistan, and Iraq — all “important, no doubt, but not exactly the most pressing issue when the BBC, Sky and others were reporting that people in Japan had been warned to flee a tsunami which was expected to hit the coast within the next few minutes,” the Guardian’s Brian Whitaker blogs. “Al Jazeera mentioned it in passing but then plunged on with an exclusive five-minute report about … well, Al Jazeera, actually.”

Thankfully, the tsunami turned out to be minor. “If this had been a major wave AJE would be in serious trouble,” an e-mailer says…

> Here’s a summary of blog reaction to the launch…