BIN TALAL EDITS FOX NEWS/ UPDATE
It seems that he believes he has the right to edit the content of FOX news and is doing so successfully:
Asked if he thought that the American Press was pro-Israel, his reply was candid:"Indeed, this is what we think, but as Arabs, we are not doing our job to change this perception of the Americans."Quoting a recent incident, he said:"I was in America watching Fox News when I saw a news report being labeled as Muslim riots. I immediately called up Fox Murdoch and informed him that it was wrong to label any riot caused by whatever reason as Muslim. After a short while, there was a change, and the news report about Muslim riots was simply labeled as riots."
The Arab journalists have been asking for less state control of the media but if Bin Talal is considered a liberal, they will not have much success. Everything you need to know about his attitude towards the freedom of the press you can learn from his assertion that Iraq is not ready to have democracy"imposed" on it. Instead,"it would be right to let the country have only one voice - one newspaper, one radio and one TV station," he said.
FOX news must be carefully watched not for conservative bias but for Bin Talal kind of bias. The Accuracy in the Media Report entitled"Radical Arabs Seek Influence Over U.S. Media - December A" should be taken seriously indeed.
I am happy to say that this story has developed legs. It is also covered Mediacrity, the News Dissector Blog, and LGF.
Our friend Bin Talal is equating Sabra and Shatilla with 9/11 (of course, he does not complain about the Falanjists who actually did the murder)and he has a book written about him by Riz Khan, a former CNN and current AL Jazeera reproter.
A new press release by AIM reports:
The DVD includes a brief interview with News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch, who praises Al-waleed and dismisses as “politics” the rejection of the Saudi’s $10 million contribution to a 9/11 fund after he blamed U.S. Middle East policy for the terror attacks.