Fox News Financed By Saudis

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حمايت مالي خاندان سعودي از شبكه آمريكايي فاكس*نيوز فاش شد


خبرگزاري مستقل سعودي اعلام كرد يك عضو خاندان سلطنتي اين كشور، تأمين مالي بخشي از بودجه شبكه تلويزيوني "فاكس*نيوز" آمريكا را بر عهده دارد.



اين خبرگزاري با اشاره به اينكه "فاكس*نيوز" بخشي از امپراتوري صهيونيستي "رابرت مردوخ" سرمايه*دار يهودي استرالياست و به حمايت همه*جانبه از اسرائيل و اسلام*ستيزي شهرت دارد،* اعلام كرد: امير "الوليد طلال بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود" عضو برجسته خاندان سلطنتي عربستان تأمين دو ميليارد و 600 ميليون دلار از بودجه هنگفت اين شبكه آمريكايي را بر عهده دارد.

اين گزارش حاكي است امير "الوليد طلال بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود" كه رياست هيأت مديره شركت "المملكه القابضه" را بر عهده دارد از طريق سهامدارانش در رياض، قصيم و مكه، اين بخش از بودجه شركت "نيوز كورپ" كه مالك فاكس*نيوز و رسانه*هاي زيرمجموعه آن است تأمين مي*كند.

فاكس*نيوز از هنگامي كه اين بورجه را از خاندان سعودي دريافت كرده از طرح هرگونه انتقاد عليه سياست*هاي رياض و پذيرش ميهمانان منتقد سياست*هاي حكومت عربستان خودداري مي*كن

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Hannity Decries Saudi Prince's University Donations, Ignores Same Prince's Financial Connections To FOX News

For Sean Hannity, what's good for FOX and the Bush family is a scandal for universities. Last night's (12/13/05) Hannity & Colmes included a critical look at Saudi Prince Al-waleed bin Talal's large donations to two top US universities. Hannity and author Richard Miniter slimed the schools by saying, without offering any sources or facts to back up the claim, that the donations were evidence of anti-Americanism on campus. Meanwhile, everybody seemed to overlook the fact that the same prince is a large stockholder of FOX News parent company, News Corporation. Also overlooked were the recent allegations that, at the request of the prince, FOX News changed its news reporting to make it more Muslim-friendly.

Hannity, sounding outraged, introduced the discussion by saying, "Harvard and Georgetown Universities are now accepting $20 million each from Prince Al-waleed bin Talal for their Islamic studies programs... So will these grants lead to free and open debate on campus or do they come with some type of strings attached?"

Guest was Richard Miniter, touting a new book about how the media undermines the war on terror.

Hannity declared, "This is a bad guy." Hitting his hand against the desk to accent each word, Hannity asked, "Why would these universities take money from him?"

Hannity might want to ask his boss, Rupert Murdoch, that same question. A 1999 press release by News Corporation, announces that Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal owns more than 5% of FOX News Channel's parent company. Last September, our own Marie Therese posted that Bin Talal increased his holdings to 5.5% in order to block a threatened takeover. With News Corporation's market cap of $17.3 billion, Bin Talal's share comes to about $1 billion, quite a bit more than the gifts he made to Harvard and Georgetown.

As the screen read, "Dirty money?" Miniter answered that the reason Harvard and Georgetown accepted the money is "because these universities already believe this message... and teach that America's the problem, that our support for Israel and our arguments against terrorism is the problem." No examples or sources were provided to back up his claim.

Hannity said, "That's even more disgraceful... Why don't they get challenged on it?"

Alan Colmes said that the prince "is known to be pro-American. He's made major contributions to US corporations like Citicorp, for example."

Miniter agreed that the prince is a liberal Saudi and that it was "a good and fair point."

One might also think it "a good and fair point" for "real journalism, fair and balanced" FOX News to at least mention that they have their own connection to Prince Bin Talal. Not only that, on the same day of the show, FrontPageMag.com reported that FOX News, itself, capitulated to Prince Bin Talal's request that it portray Muslims in a more favorable light.

In early September 2005, Bin Talal bought 5.46% of voting shares in News Corp. This made the Fifth richest man on the Forbes World's Richest People, the fourth largest voting shareholder in News Corp., the parent of Fox News.

...Covering the riots in Paris last November, Fox ran a banner saying: "Muslim riots." Bin Talal was not happy. "I picked up the phone and called Murdoch... (and told him) these are not Muslim riots, these are riots out of poverty," he said. "Within 30 minutes, the title was changed from Muslim riots to civil riots."

Also not mentioned, and probably never will be, is the Bush family's deep connections to the Saudi Royal family. Read The Center for American Progress' Complete Saudi Primer and ask "fair and balanced" FOX News why the university donation is more newsworthy than evidence that ties the Saudi royal family to the 9/11 attacks.

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Saudi Billionaire Boasts of Manipulating Fox News Coverage



Accuracy in Media (AIM) is urging a full inquiry into a report that a Saudi billionaire caused the Fox News Channel (FNC) to dramatically alter its coverage of the Muslim riots in France after he called the network to complain. The Saudi billionaire, Al-waleed bin Talal, is a friend of News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch and controls an influential number of voting shares in the company.

"This report underscores the danger of giving foreign interests a significant financial stake in U.S. media companies," declared Cliff Kincaid, editor of Accuracy in Media.

The controversial comments came at an Arab media conference featuring representatives of Time magazine, USA Today, PBS, The Wall Street Journal, and other news organizations. The conference and the Saudi Prince's growing influence in News Corporation are among the subjects of a new December-A AIM Report that has just been posted at the AIM website (www.aim.org). The report raises the specter of Arab money influencing News Corporation and other U.S. media companies.

Liberal journalist Danny Schechter, a participant in the conference, reports that Al-waleed, who is a member of the Saudi Royal Family and investor in the Fox News parent company News Corporation, gave an interview boasting that he had called Fox to complain about coverage of the "Muslim riots" in France. He said he "called as a viewer" and "convinced them to change" the coverage because "they were not Muslim riots but riots against poverty and inequality." And "they changed" the coverage, the Saudi reportedly said.

Another report on the comments, carried by the Dubai-based newspaper the Khaleej Times, says that Al-waleed personally called Rupert Murdoch to complain. The Saudi said, "After a short while, there was a change" in the coverage.

An AIM call to Fox News asking for comment was not returned.

This is not the first time that Al-waleed has made controversial statements. His $10 million contribution to a 9/11 fund was rejected when he blamed the terror attacks on U.S. Middle East policy. Fifteen of the 19 terrorist hijackers on 9/11 came from Saudi Arabia.