Among the journalists attracted Al Jazeera International "is Dave Marash, a former Nightline correspondent and onetime anchor of WCBS New York, who is negotiating a job in the Washington bureau, according to sources close to the journalist. David Frost, the veteran BBC journalist and the first to interview Richard Nixon after Watergate, signed on earlier this summer. Former Nightline anchor Ted Koppel had a meeting with a representative from Al Jazeera International in Washington this fall, according sources close to Mr. Koppel. But nothing came of it," the Observer says.

So why do "some of the Western world’s most accomplished broadcast journalists see the new network as a last, great hope?" Rebecca Dana explains...