War for al-Jazeera?

Is another Middle East war breaking out--inside the al-Jazeera newsroom?

Plenty of recent changes suggest there is turmoil in Doha. A few months ago, Jazeera Arabic's long-time Washington bureau chief Hafez al-Mirazi quit. Then the Qatari government, which owns the multi-channel Jazeera network, announced the appointment of a new board and conspicuously did not renew the board membership of Jazeera's Palestinian director general Wadah Khanfar.

Some Jazeera insiders are claiming that the shakeup is the result of U.S. government pressure on Qatar to soften the channel's journalism.

Marc Lynch, the indefatigable observer of Arab media, takes a good look at what's going on at his Abu Aardvark blog site.

For coverage reflecting the views of Khanfar and the Arabic channel's diehards, check out Friends of Al Jazeera. Among other items, the site has a piece titled The Bush/Cheney Regime's War Against al-Jazeera.

--By Scott MacLeod/Cairo