Al Jazeera America news boss Marcy McGinnis resigned from the news channel Monday, sources confirmed.
McGinnis, a former CBS News top executive, confirmed in a letter to staff that she no longer supported the direction set by current management.
The resignation letter sent to staff read in part, “Last week, Ehab [CEO Al Shihabi] reminded us at the Senior Leadership meeting and again at the All Hands meeting that anyone who felt they could not support the decisions or direction set forth by him and the Al Jazeera Media Network would be welcome to leave. I find myself at that crossroads now and so have decided to resign.”
McGinnis was senior vice president of news gathering but was sidelined and made senior vice preside of corporate outreach in March, according to her LinkedIn biography.
Her departure comes hot on the heels of at least six other executives departing, including communications and human resources staff.
Sources tell The Post that Al Jazeera America is on the verge of naming a new senior news executive, said to be a lawyer. The executive, as yet unnamed, is believed to joining from Al Jazeera English.
Meanwhile CEO Al Shihabi has been told to reduce the network’s budget by $20 million, insiders tell The Post.
Al Jazeera America is facing a $15 million lawsuit from Matthew Luke, who worked as the director of media and archive management.
He claims that his boss, Osman Mahmud, displayed “overt misogynistic behavior and bias against women” by removing them from projects they were previously assigned to and excluding others from emails and meetings.
The boss’s unsavory behavior is part of ongoing efforts by execs at the Qatar-owned news channel to sideline women there — and put Arab Muslim men in charge instead, the suit alleges.
In one instance, according to Luke, Mahmud instructed him to exclude two women from an email about a project they were working on and swap them out for a male employee.
“… There was no non-discriminatory reason to remove them from the project,” Luke said in the suit. “The reason that Mr. Mahmud insisted on removing them from the project was that they are female.”
Mahmud also made openly anti-Semitic and anti-American statements, the suit claims, citing one instance where he allegedly said, “Whoever supports Israel should die a fiery death in hell.”
Al Jazeera America issued a statement Monday via their PR agency Qorvis, saying media reports are “false and malicious.”
In a statement about media reports, Al Shihabi said, “Al Jazeera America does not tolerate any discriminatory conduct and we take great pride in the diversity of our organization and its leadership.”
In defending the company against Luke’s lawsuit, he added, “The recent attacks on us as being anti-Semitic, sexist and anti-American are absurd. Al Jazeera America’s values are based on the highest ethical standards and professionalism. Integrity and respect guide our conduct internally and externally.”
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