Tuesday, May 24, 2005

AlArabiyya: you really need to shut Al-Hurra down when Al-Arabiyya does not cost American taxpayers any money. No matter what they say in public, it is clear, that the US government, and its propagandists, are operating on the assumption that Al-Hurra TV is dead. Nobody is watching it, so US officials now rely on the highly reliable and submissive Al-Arabiyya TV and LBC-TV. In a one-hour news show today, Panorama, they had 3 segments. The anchorwoman (snatched from AlJazeera early on) kept the deputy spokesperson of the Department of State for 2 consecurive segments. In the first segment on Zarqawi, Adam Ereli, was on with a Dubai-based "analyst" who is pro UAE and Gulf governments. He barely said a word. Ereli spoke for the whole time. The next segment was on Syria, and it featured, you guessed it, the helpful Adam Ereli along with Syrian member of rubber stamp parliament, Muhammad Habash. Habash again barely said a word. In fact, when Al-Ramahi ended the segment, we saw Habash talking. Apparently he was talking the whole time but his microphone was cut off lest he offends the honored guest, Mr. Ereli. (Oh, and the last segment on Lebanon, which oddly did not include Ereli, was a debate on Lebanese affairs. For the exciting debate, AlArabiyya invited right-wing member of the `Awn movement (and his nephew), along with right-wing candidate Jubran Tuwayni. That was more than I can handle. In fact, it was at that point that I left to...fly a kite for peace in the Middle East.)