BY
KEITH LACEY
Brendan Connor has found out quickly viewers don't care much
about Sidney Crosby or the NHL in Malaysia or the Middle
East.
It's all part of the learning curve for the former Sudbury man
who has been hired as a sports correspondence for 
Al-Jazeera English, the first international satellite
television network not based in the west. It went on air Nov.
15 but is not available in Canada.
Connor, 49, is the son of Michael Connor,the well-known
former Sudbury broadcaster and news anchor with CKSO TV.
He has had a long and successful career as a sports and news
broadcaster in both radio and television, primarily with CBC
and The Sports Network (TSN).
In 2005,  Connor was on the picket line with CBC during
a three-month lockout when he read about the Qatar-based Al
Jazeera's plans to start an international English-language
television network.
"I was stuck on the picket line, and I thought what the
hell. I put together a tape and resume and fired it off to
Doha, Qatar in the Persian Gulf, where Al Jazeera is
headquartered," said Connor.
"About two weeks later, I got a call from a man named Stuart
Young, who was the head of sports with this new network and he
told me he liked my work...there were no jobs at the time, but
he said he'd keep in touch."
Young contacted him in January of this year and made him an
offer.
Connor accepted, but had a commitment to do some freelance
work for CBC at the Turin Winter Olympics last winter.
Connor has covered four Olympic Games for CBC and TSN and
has been in the broadcasting game for more than 25 years since
graduating from Queen's University in the early 1980s.
Connor's love of sports comes naturally as he was an
outstanding athlete as a youngster. Based on his solid play in
high school in Sudbury, Connor earned a basketball scholarship
to Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York before going to
Queen's. Connor attended Lockerby and Sudbury High.
He worked briefly in radio in Kingston and London, and
worked summers at CKSO while attending university.
Armed with an English degree from Queen's, Connor, who is
better known by his nickname Jody to his Sudbury friends,
decided he'd go into broadcasting rather than teaching.
"I loved working summers at CKSO...I also knew I could use
my degree as all reporting jobs involve a lot of writing," he
said.
He is also the author of two sports-related books: the
Broadview Books of Sports Anecdotes (1989); and Slam Dunk: The
Raptors and the NBA in Canada (1995).
He started his new job in the middle of April. Plans called for
Al Jazeera English to hit the airwaves in June or July, but
there were many bugs to iron out as the network broadcasts in
several dozen countries around the world, said Connor.
His official title is sports correspondent for the Americas,
meaning he will cover and do feature broadcasts on sporting
events and athletes in North America, Central America and South
America.
"There will be extra emphasis on South America as the network
feels this area is under-represented when it comes to sports
coverage," he said.
"I'll also obviously cover all of Canada and the United States,
which means a lot of time on the road."
Connor is based in Washington, D.C., the headquarters for the
network in the United States. He's living only a short subway
ride away in Arlington, Virginia.
As an example of the kind of work he'll be doing, Connor said
he anchored a sports broadcast last week which featured reports
on a match from the Scottish Premier League in soccer,
Australian Masters golf tournament and a World Cup ski race
from Lake Louise in Alberta.
Because Al Jazeera English is an international broadcaster with
a large segment of its viewers in Asia and the Americas, there
will be only minimal emphasis on sports popular in Canada, such
as NHL hockey, the NFL, NBA and major league baseball.
There will far more focus on sports with mass international
appeal like cricket and soccer, he said.
"If I do a story about Sidney Crosby, I have to explain he's an
ice hockey player in the NHL and hockey is very popular in
Canada," said Connor.
"When I think of a story idea, and when I put together a story,
I have to also think about how it's going to play in Malaysia
and China. It's a totally different scope to what I'm used to.
I have to choose stories that will be palatable to a lot of
different people around the world."
Connor recently did a story on Canadian basketball hero Steve
Nash, the NBA's reigning two-time Most Valuable Player.
That story will play big on Al Jazeera because NBA basketball
has massive international appeal. Children in the Middle East
know who Nash is because he's considered one of the best
players in the world, said Connor.
He will be travelling next week to Argentina to do a feature
story on the Boca Juniors, a renowned soccer club where the
legendary Maradona played many years ago.
Connor admits most Americans and Canadians he's met associate
Al Jazeera with radical politics and problems in the hostile
Middle East.
The network "does have an editorial agenda", but it isn't on
politics or the Middle East, but simply to bring television to
under-reported areas around the world, said Connor.
"The editorial agenda certainly isn't anti-west or anti-United
States," said Connor. "The fact is Al Jazeera has such a
reputation for being so fair and for reporting the truth
they've been kicked out of places like Iraq and Tunisia."
When he comes up with an idea for a sports story "there's no
one telling me what to do, and that's nice because I've always
thought sports transcend politics and should remain
apolitical," said Connor.
"It will be interesting to see what reaction I'll get when I
apply for a press pass in the United States...that hasn't
happened yet," he said.
While Al Jazeera English currently isn't available in North
America, Connor is hoping public pressure will change that in
coming years.
Broadcasts are available on the Internet by going online at
AlJazeera.net/English.
He is proud to have followed in his father's footsteps. Michael
Connor is now 80 and in poor health.
"My dad was the face of news in Sudbury for a long, long time
as he was the news anchor for more than a decade when CKSO was
the only station in town," he said. "He was a good broadcaster
and deeply respected. I always tried to carry the same type of
professionalism he did."
Connor said he  looks forward to visiting his family
during  the Christmas holidays.
"I'm a Sudbury boy and have always told everyone how proud I am
to come from there," he said. "I still drive a Honda from
Palladino Honda and the owner Vince Palladino is a good
friend...I still have a lot of good friends in Sudbury."
Brendan's mother, Lynn, says she and her husband couldn't be
prouder of their oldest son. They have four other children all
who have successful careers.
"We're very proud of the fact he set out to become accomplished
in the same line of work as his dad and he's done so very
well," she said.
"He's done a lot of things during his career, and got to see a
lot of the world and this is certainly a unique opportunity for
him."
