Al Jazeera Buys Current TV, Predictable Bigotry Ensues

Early Wednesday evening, the New York Times' media reporter and expert DIY home decorator Brian Stelter dropped a "big one" and broke the news that Qatar-financed news organization Al Jazeera had completed a deal to purchase Current TV, Al Gore's low rated news channel best known for hiring and then firing Keith Olbermann.

The deal is notable because, in spite of its low ratings (42,000 a night in 2012, on average), Current boasts a large market in the States, including channels on DirecTV, Comcast, Dish Network, Verizon, and AT&T (Time Warner jumped ship shortly after the deal was announced); such a wide range of distribution will allow Al Jazeera to compete with CNN, MSNBC and other cable news networks, something that had previously been a challenge for the network, in part because of American's suspicions of a, as Stelter put it, "pan-Arab news giant."

So how are America's truest Americans reacting to the move? As you might expect, the answer is: not well. After news of the deal broke, various right wing pundits, writers and their Twitter followers started a fun, bigoted game called #CurrentAlJazeeraShowPitches, in which they show off their best jokes exposed their best racist xenophobia (Qatar, which owns Al Jazeera, is one of the US's closest allies in the region, so it's not as if a secret terrorist organization is suddenly broadcasting live into 40 million U.S. homes).

USA, USA, etc.