A group of Congressmen has written to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, arguing that Arab TV satellite company Al Jazeera — established and funded by the Government of Qatar — should be required to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The Justice Dept. last August required RTTV America, which is funded by Russia, to file under FARA.
The letter quotes Qatar’s US ambassador calling AJ “one of Qatar’s most valuable political and diplomatic tools,” and an outlet “used as a chip” to shape Qatar’s relations with other governments.
 |
The Congressmen are troubled that AJ’s content “undermines American interests with favorable coverage of US State Dept.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations, including Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria.”
They told Sessions that AJ’s “record of radical anti-American, anti-Semitic and anti-Israel broadcasts warrants scrutiny from regulators to determine whether this network is in violation of US law.”
American citizens “deserve to know whether the information and news media they consume is impartial, or if it is deceptive propaganda pushed by foreign nations.”
New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D) and New York’s Lee Zeldin (R) organized the letter signed by 16 other Congressmen and Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R).
AJ has a TV presence in US DC, New York, Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles. Its broadcasts are accessible on social media.
It’s PR unit has not yet commented on the FARA letter.
Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. has replaced CEO and former California Congressman Devin Nunes with Kevin McGurn, a seasoned media sales executive.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is being bought by the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, a nonprofit that is the parent organization of the Baltimore Banner... The British Broadcasting Corporation is axing approximately 2,000 jobs, about 10 percent of its work force... Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is also succumbing to layoff fever, announcing plans to lay off 16 percent of its employees, about 1,000 people.
CBS News Radio will go off the air on May 22, part of the axe-swinging managerial plan put into play by CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss... The Economist, which was first published in 1843, is changing hands. Canadian billionaire Stephen Smith has agreed to acquire a 26.9 percent stake in the publication from Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, her family and family foundation... Nexstar Media Group says it has closed its acquisition of TEGNA, the broadcast, digital media and marketing services company that was formed in 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies.
USA TODAY brings on Jamie Stockwell as VP of news, effective March 30. Stockwell was most recently deputy managing editor of news for the Washington Post... YouTube expands its likeness detection capabilities to a pilot group of government officials, journalists and political candidates... The AP Fund for Journalism adds 50 news organizations to its local news program, bringing the total number of participating newsrooms to 100. 
Versant Media Group, the NBCUniversal cable TV spin-off, today reported its first financial results as 2025 revenues dipped 5.3 percent to $6.7B and standalone EBITDA dropped 9.1 percent to $2.2B.
