Al Jazeera speech by the leader of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. Staff members protested that the speech was not the most important aspect of the debate, and that it was a repetition of previous calls for Arab intervention. "The Guardian" also said in September 2012 that Qatar had taken steps in recent years to consolidate control of Al Jazeera English. A 13 August 2015 article in "The Independent" on poor BBC news reporting also made reference to the political bias in Al Jazeera from the Qatar government. Al Jazeera Al Jazeera (, , literally "The Island", though referring to the
Al Jazeera interesting twist of fate, the BBC World Service was preparing to launch its own Arabic language station in 2007. Today, evidence of U.S. antipathy at the Arabic network has dissipated significantly, though not entirely, several analysts say. In January 2013, Al Jazeera Media Network purchased Current TV, which was partially owned by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. Using part of Current TV's infrastructure, Al Jazeera launched an American news channel on 20 August 2013. Though Current TV had large distribution throughout the United States on cable and satellite television, it averaged only 28,000 viewers at any time. The acquisition