Live From Qatar

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The question is not only whether American viewers will tune in but if U.S. advertisers will risk indirect association with a news organization that the State Department accuses of having a "clear pattern of false and inflammatory reporting" that endangers the lives of Americans, particularly U.S. personnel in Iraq. "There is no baggage heavier than anything that is related to 9/11," says Tom Wolzien, a media analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein in New York City. "Advertisers would be very careful in figuring out what the implications are to their product." Says Steve Tatham, author of a forthcoming book on Arab media reporting from Iraq: "People associate al-Jazeera with anti-Western sentiment." It doesn't help things that al-Jazeera's star correspondent, Tayseer Alouni, is on trial in Madrid on charges of being an al-Qaeda operative. Al-Jazeera is standing by its reporter, saying his contacts were consistent with his work as a journalist who covered bin Laden's organization.

Another obstacle is getting access to America's estimated 90 million households equipped to receive cable or satellite transmissions. Parsons reports that initial talks with U.S. distributors--he declines to name them--have gone smoothly. But according to U.S. cable operators and cable-television executives, the limited number of slots are nearly full for all-news channels on major U.S. satellite systems, and it will not be easy for al-Jazeera International to find a place on so-called basic-tier cable packages either. "There are not many of us out there, but it is very, very competitive for distribution, advertising and, of course, audiences," says Richard Sambrook, director of BBC World Service and Global News Division. But, he adds, "al-Jazeera has deep pockets, and therefore they are going to be serious competitors."

Parsons blames al-Jazeera's negative image in the West on critics who do not even understand Arabic. "Somebody accused us of pushing a Sunni Wahhabi agenda on the world. I don't even know what a Sunni Wahhabi agenda is," he says. "Warts and all, the [staff members] have done a fantastic job. Nobody's perfect, but they have blazed a trail." At the same time, Parsons argues that Western news organizations' coverage is slanted. In covering the Iraq war, he contends, "there was a dereliction of duty. Not enough organizations showed the other side. There was an attempt to sanitize the war. We don't agree that's a good thing." News director Steve Clark, 52, a veteran of Britain's Sky News, says al-Jazeera International will make a mission of covering the developing world but doesn't intend to "sound like some alternative channel that is wacky and different."