Now the good news…
Al-Waleed bin Talal may now be buying his way into the good graces of news organizations — or at least into Rupert Murdoch’s FOX “News” channel and other Murdoch-owned outlets as reported by FrontPage Magazine, a rightwing website:
Saudi Prince al-Waleed bin Talal boasted in Dubai earlier this week about his ability to change the news content that viewers around the world see on television.
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In early September 2005, Bin Talal bought 5.46% of voting shares in News Corp. This made the Fifth richest man on the Forbes World’s Richest People, the fourth largest voting shareholder in News Corp., the parent of Fox News. News Corp. is the world’s leading newspaper publisher in English. It operates more than 175 newspapers, in the UK, Australia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and the US, and distributes more than 40 million papers per week.
…
Covering the riots in Paris last November, Fox ran a banner saying: “Muslim riots.” Bin Talal was not happy. “I picked up the phone and called Murdoch… (and told him) these are not Muslim riots, these are riots out of poverty,” he said. “Within 30 minutes, the title was changed from Muslim riots to civil riots.”
…
If indeed he was successful changing FOX NEWS’ reports of the Paris riots, he got a big bang for his bucks.
The first time I feel happy about something coming from Al Waleed. Can you doubt the history of Fox’s two most common slogans; “un-Fair and un-Balanced” or “We Report, We You Decide”?
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I dont know, the Saudis own enough news sources already, at least in the Arab world already. They have too much influence in the Arab world and that is why you get(or dont get) the news that you do.
That’s true, however, how effective is this news sources to reflect the story through Arab eyes outside the Arab world? Negligible!
That is one of the reasons that in few weeks time, Al-Jazeera should be launching the first English News Channel from the Arab world and broadcast to reach everyone around the globe. It’s time we have our voice heard.
The al-Jazeera station is a great idea. Finally they get it in English. I speak Arabic, but it is hard to keep up at times. I will be interested to see how the content compares with its Arabic counterpart. Are they going to do it almost exactly as it is in Arabic? Or cater it more towards English speaking non Muslims?
It is interesting because I know many non Arabic speaking Muslims who would like some of the subjects done on Islam. So will they do these types of programs, just in English?
I am glad that of any Arab news service doing this, it is al-Jazeera. I used to enjoy some of the programs from al-Manar, but they are hardly unbiased. The best thing about their English language programs was the cute mahajaba they had doing it. Now they banned al-Manar here.
We’ll wait and see. Do you know if it will be available in the Middle East?
I have no answer to any of your questions, sorry :-D
Let’s wait and see ;-)
I believe that news should be reported and not manipulated as the Saudi did. One call to Murdock and the news changes. That is ridiculous. Lets call a spade a spade and a duck a duck. If muslims are rioting then that should be the headline. If Americans are protesting the war or rioting it should be reported as such also. In Paris, Muslims acted shamefully and further propelled the negative view of them that the west has-a bunch of maniacs, out of control fanatics etc. They burned down building, destroyed vehicles and terrorized the populace. If things are so bad in France for Muslims then they should go back to a more accepting environment. I agree also that wrongs need to corrected in French society. If they are going to allow Muslims into their country then they should be give similar opportunities. We Americans are not too fond of the French to begin with but Muslims acted shamefully in that situation.
It is so gratifying to see that Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal is willing to put his money where his mouth is. Perhaps now with the power of his stock shares, Fox can indeed become “Fair and Balanced” Since we have been broadcasting our own news channel in the mideast promoting our US agenda, wouldn’t it be great if Al-Jazeera set up a station here in the US? I’m for fair and balanced!
Americans promote their agenda and others theirs. Why would anyone not promote their agenda. That is the name of the game. You want others to believe as you do. Hellooooooooooo! Last I checked Fox new was fair and balanced.
Robert,
The problem is that you are assuming something that not even the French claimed, unless you are talking in their behalf.
The riots of subject here had nothing to do with Islam, and if some Muslims were among the mob, they were aside of Christians as well, all in all had nothing to do with Islam.
What Bin Talal did was the right thing in correcting a wrong report.
Haitham,
I understood, perahaps erroneously, that the headline “Muslims Riot” was accurate but offensive to Muslims in Paris and throughout the world. They were riots whether out of poverty or whatever. Burning vehicles, setting buildings on fire, mass demonstrations, clashes with police etc. That sounds like a riot to me. So what you are saying is that not only Muslims demonstrated therefore it was inaccurate. Therefore, the Saudi gentleman had the caption corrected so as to not blame it entirely on Muslims. If that is the case then I agree wholeheartedly. Thanks for pointing that out.
Michael Jackson sings about Allah, is Alwaleed Bin Talal with HIM ?