Al Jazeera controversies and criticism Dave Marash, a veteran correspondent for ABC's "Nightline" who resigned from his position as Washington anchor for Al Jazeera English in 2008 due to a perception of anti-American bias, appeared on the "O'Reilly Factor" and asserted, "They certainly aren't anti-Semitic, but they are anti-Netanyahu and anti-Lieberman and anti-Israeli, right..." On May 30, 2017 a tweet from the network's official English account was accompanied by an antisemitic meme that sparked controversy and was consequently removed. The Network tweeted an apology following the incident, dubbing it a "mistake." Al Jazeera has been criticized for being state media owned by Qatar. In 2010,
Al Jazeera was Al Jazeera's first day of 24-hour broadcasting. Employment had more than tripled in one year to 500 employees, and the agency had bureaus at a dozen sites as far as EU and Russia. Its annual budget was estimated at about $25 million at the time. However controversial, Al Jazeera was rapidly becoming one of the most influential news agencies in the whole region. Eager for news beyond the official versions of events, Arabs became dedicated viewers. A 2000 estimate pegged nightly viewership at 35 million, ranking Al Jazeera first in the Arab world, over the Saudi Arabia-sponsored Middle East