The new television channel Al Jazeera America launches today. The U.S. branch of the Qatar-based network Al Jazeera boasts some 900 staffers and will air in roughly 48 million homes, reaching about half of all U.S. TV subscribers. In a conference call last week, acting chief executive Ehab Al Shihabi promised “a new channel unlike the others … Al Jazeera America will air fact-based, unbiased and in-depth news,” he said. “There will be less opinion, less yelling and fewer celebrity sightings.”