Dawud Ash-Shiryan: the new Al-Arabiya TV. Al-Arabiya TV announced that Saudi journalist, Dawud Ash-Shiryan, was appointed deputy director-general of the station. The decision aims at two things in my opinion: 1) an attempt to capture some of the Arab audience which remains loyal to Aljazeera. Shiryan is loyal to House of Saud but has a strong Arab nationalist perspective; 2) there are criticisms inside Saudi Arabia that Saudi media don't hire Saudis--there is a clear annoying preference for Lebanonese in Saudi media. Shiryan may change that a bit, I think.