Al Jazeera America ousts top executive amid defections
The troubled Al Jazeera America network ousted its chief executive on Wednesday following a week of management defections and a lawsuit charging an employee with anti-Semitism.
The little-watched news network is replacing its CEO, Ehab Al Shihabi, with veteran news executive Al Anstey. Al Shihabi has run Al Jazeera America since it started two years ago, and Anstey has been the managing director of Al Jazeera English. Both networks are offshoots of the Al Jazeera cable news network, run out of Qatar. Al Shihabi sent an email to the staff welcoming Anstey and saying he would remain as chief operating officer.
Al Jazeera's former senior vice president of newsgathering, Marcy McGinnis, quit this week and told The New York Times that Al Shihabi managed with a culture of fear. The network's head of human resources and its communications chief resigned last week, and a former employee sued Al Jazeera America, charging that he was fired when he complained about a former colleague's anti-Semitic and sexist behavior.
