Calling Detroit a hot news town understates things, so a move by the Al Jazeera cable TV network is just the latest confirmation.
The Arab-owned broadcasting company is opening a full-time local bureau to serve a new English language channel, Al Jazeera America, targeted for a launch by fall, Oralandar Brand-Williams writes in The Detroit News. A spokesman tells her why Detroit gets one of 12 bureaus nationwide:
"We couldn't cover the Midwest and the base of the auto industry without being in Detroit. The city is still too important to news about the economic recovery of the auto industry. We wanted to be on the ground there."
He said the channel will target American audiences and will carry news directed at "all Americans … all demographics … all ages. It will not be a channel about Arab Americans."
Details will come May 2 from Ehab Al Shihabi, executive director of the new channel, in a luncheon address to the Detroit Economic Club.
