Monday, September 07, 2009

Shadha `Amr (or `Umar) of LBC: her praise for the Saudi King

Shadha `Amr (or `Umar) was one of the few broadcasters on LBC-TV who was a Muslim in a sectarian Christian environment. She even mentioned that only a few people were nice to her, including producer Marwan Matni (her second husband) who is a Lebanese Forces supporter although his father and uncle were brave socialists who supported Kamal Jumblat. Shadha `Amr bothers me: she is quite annoying and quite partisan and biased and thinks that she can prove her objectivity by asserting that she is objective, assuming that the Lebanese viewers can't see her blatant political biases (this is a common trait among Lebanese journalists: they always think that if they repeat that they are objective that they would be perceived as objective--how dumb is that?). `Amr and her Lebanese Forces supporter husband almost joined Future Hariri TV in 2007 to reward them for political stances. And people in Lebanon know that no one is offered a job at Hariri TV or Saudi TV without him or her being of the "correct" political stance. `Amr is--I have to admit--intelligent, capable, sharp, and competent at what she does although she has no charm and no sense of humor, and that was obvious in the interview with her on Nishan's program. She is disturbingly quite sectarian (anti-Shi`ite) in her interviews and was most sectarian when LBC-TV interrupted her show one day to show the scene of the arrest of Ziyad Humsi (an accused Israeli spy who was active in the Hariri movement in the Biqa` region where she is from). She asked the Lebanese Forces-Phalanges Minister of Justice whether this arrest would not aggravate sectarian tensions in the country. This Lebanese Forces-Phalanges Minister of Justice (somebody I detest) was disturbed to his credit by her question and told her: not so, because the accused spies of Israel come from different sectarian backgrounds. Ever since that day, I have decided that she is one of the worst TV broadcasters. To make it worse: she spoke fawningly about Saudi government, Saudi clerics, and praised the Saudi King as "commander of the Reform Revolution" in Saudi Arabia. I kid you not. Just imagine the quality of Lebanese journalists when they prostrate themselves before Saudi rulers. She praised the Saudi reforms and even criticized her own colleague at LBC-TV, Malik Maktabi, because he (according to what she said) offended Saudi royal sensibilities. Oh, and she watches CNN: that is considered a high honor in the lousy Batata homeland.

PS And can she stop the annoying habit of saying "بمكان ما"
in every sentence???