Monday, December 08, 2014

Dubai and Sheikh Mo on 60 Minutes

I saw the report on Dubai and Sheikh Mo on 60 minutes.  The reporter was Steve Croft, who is a typical sensational unprofessional reporter in the silly media of the 21st century.  But the report was suspiciously similar to oil and and gas media in the Arab world.  It was a most puff piece that I have seen, and 60 minutes is all about puff pieces.  His polygamy (they said he has two wives, but he has at least three--Princess Haya of Jordan was his 3rd wife) was presented as cute and the report spoke about the "political" example of Dubai as if the high rises is about political transformation or as if the financial success (dubious at best) of Dubai accompanied political reform when in fact politics regressed in the same period.  But then Mr. Croft (a joke really) wanted to speak to the audiences about the appeal of Dubai among Arab Youth: who did he speak to? Abdul-Rahman Al-Rahid, the loyal media person of Prince Salman who spent his life serving the propaganda of Saudi princes, and who is a friend of Sheikh Mo.  When I saw that part of the report, I stopped watched and looked for synonyms in my dictionary of Arab curse words.