Al Jazeera America is preparing for its July launch with no shortage of job applicants. Last week the network’s executive director of internal operations said there were nearly 20,000 applications for its initial 170 job openings.

What Al Jazeera America is looking for next is a star to help it stand out…

“It would be very helpful for us to have a couple of names that have been recognized and people say, ‘Oh, they have gone over to them. I should give it a look,’” Bob Wheelock, executive producer for the Americas for Al Jazeera English, told The Daily Beast. “Americans like to know who is on at what time. We need to find people who are known, but we want them to be known for their journalism, not for their celebrity, not for their past failure, not for their messy divorce.”

@eScarry