Al Jazeera America has hired four anchors as it continues to staff up for its late summer debut, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The network hired Jonathan Betz, Richelle Carey, Morgan Fogarty and Del Walters, the story says. Betz won a Peabody Award for team coverage of WWL-TV’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Carey worked for seven years as a reporter and anchor for CNN, while Fogarty was a lead anchor at WCCB News in Charlotte, N.C. Walters has won more than 20 Emmys in two decades as an anchor and investigative reporter for WJLA-TV in Washington, the story notes.

The story adds, "The New York City-based [Al Jazeera America] will be available in some 50 million households starting in late August. Its parent company, Al Jazeera Media Network, purchased Current TV in January for $500 million.

"The new network expects to have a staff of 800 at launch and will have a dozen bureaus including Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, Nashville and New Orleans."

With Al Jazeera America funded by the government of Qatar, the piece notes that media watchers have said its biggest hurdle will be overcoming the perception that the news organization is anti-American.