Al Jazeera Launching New Media Platform For American Conservatives Called ‘Rightly’
Al Jazeera is launching Rightly, a conservative media outlet aimed at American audiences, the network announced Tuesday.
First reported by Politico Playbook, the new digital platform will “generate content for audiences currently underrepresented in today’s media environment,” according to a statement from Al Jazeera.
Scott Norvell, a veteran of Fox News and NewsCorp., will serve as Rightly’s editor-in-chief. Norvell, who helped launch Fox News in 1996, said he hopes Rightly will attract a wide range of conservatives.
“With Rightly, we are hoping to create a platform that amplifies the voices of an array of personalities that more accurately reflects the racial, cultural and generational diversity of center-right politics in America than existing outlets,” Norvell said in the statement from Al Jazeera. “We aim to bring new Americans, young Americans, and Americans of color together and present conservative ideas that transcend the barriers which identity politics aim to put between us.”
The platform’s first show, Right Now with Stephen Kent, will feature interviews with newsmakers and opinion commentators “from across the political spectrum,” the statement said. Host Kent is a conservative political commentator and author who also hosts a podcast about Star Wars and politics.
“I’m one of millions of Americans who grew up identifying with the conservative movement only to reach the times we’re living in now and recognize very little of its politics,” Kent said in the statement. “This show is going to be about searching for a home if you’re someone who doesn’t feel represented in the current political climate.”
Al Jazeera is an international news network based in Qatar and partially funded by the Qatari government. Its American network, Al Jazeera America, launched in 2013 and closed in 2016. Its digital platform, AJ+ is widely seen as progressive, although the wider Al Jazeera network has also been accused of excluding criticism of the Qatari government in its Arabic-language outlets.
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