Monday, October 29, 2007

The Voice of Israel...in Arabic. I woke up and wanted to watch the news. I split my screen between Aljazeera (Arabic) and Al-Arabiya TV. AlJazeera started the news cast with yet another Israeli invasion in the West Bank in which a child and a disabled Palestinian, among others, were killed. They covered it well, and interviewed people on the ground. Al-Arabiya TV started the newscast with a round up and left the Palestinian story to the very end, and it said that Palestinians died "in clashes." The newscast then opened with a story that I tried to no avail to find on the Fox News' site. In fact, I could not find it elsewhere. It said that Iran was threatening suicide attacks in the Gulf, and went on to report on Iranian threats. After an extensive story, the newscast covered Iraq. It reported in passing the news of bombings (the Hariri anchorperson, Najwa Qasim, added proudly that the bombings were not in Baghdad--as if victims outside of Baghdad don't count). It immediately followed that story--and this has been the trend on this lousy network--with a happy, good news story from Iraq. It reported that the Iraqi puppet Ministry of Tourism is ready to welcome tourists to the Hubbaniyya Lake area. I kid you not. It was like theater of the absurd. It then reported about other stories, and more than 25 minutes after the beginning of the newscast, it reported on the Israeli killing with the headline: "Israeli forces withdraw...." There was no report on the ground and no interviews on the scene. Instead, we were treated with a report on the prostate of Olmert.