Thanks to Religion of Pieces for making me aware of this:
RIYADH (Reuters) - Muslim tycoons should buy stakes in global media outlets to help change anti-Muslim attitudes around the world, ministers from Islamic countries heard at a conference in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
Information ministers and officials meeting under the auspices of the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the world's largest Islamic body, said Islam faced vilification after the September 11 attacks, when 19 Arabs killed nearly 3,000 people in U.S. cities in 2001.
"Muslim investors must invest in the large media institutions of the world, which generally make considerable profits, so that they have the ability to affect their policies via their administrative boards," OIC chief Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told the gathering in the Saudi city of Jeddah.
"This would benefit in terms of correcting the image of Islam worldwide," he said, calling on Muslim countries to set up more channels in widely-spoken foreign languages.
Muslim stakes in Western media are minimal. Billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal owns 5.46 percent of media conglomerate News Corp., the Rupert Murdoch-run group behind the Fox News Channel.
That 5 1/2% stake was enough to allow the Saudi billionaire to brag of how he had changed Fox's coverage of the Paris Riots:
... 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.
5 comments:
Yes, and we're stupid enough to allow them!
Money talks.
I like what Mark said here. We're stupid enough to allow them.
Eventually this will change, but unfortunately it looks like it's going to require that something very bad happens first.
Pastorius said...
"Money talks.
I like what Mark said here. We're stupid enough to allow them.
Eventually this will change, but unfortunately it looks like it's going to require that something very bad happens first."
RoP: But by that time, whenever very bad things happen anywhere in the world, they will be universally agreed by press and broadcasters to be the work of the Jooooooooooooz. Twin towers conspiracy theories? Wait till those petrodolars get pumping - you ain't seen nothin' yet.
ROP,
You might be right. Are you trying to depress me?
Damn, maybe I should just go buy a new Boogie Board and a Wet Suit, and just go to the beach every day until the apocalypse, if my efforts aren't worth shit. Cuz, doing this crap every day is certainly no way to spend a life if you ain't helpin' anyone.
When the public disapproves of media ownership, it generally aligns this negative role with large corporations. It seems that ongoing debates revolving around issues of ethical journalism approaches have produced a public that more or less agrees that journalism is ill-served by “greedy” corporations. Corporations like the Tribune Company, which as laid off much of its reporting staff as it consolidates under more and more massive mergers, have been scrutinized for the thin reporting that results. Given this negative image of large news corporations, it is somewhat ironic then that there is so much negativity against bin Talal, an individual.
This case proves that a controlling slant of the media (perceived to be most exercised by large corporations) is unappreciated wherever it originates. The thought has been that private ownership of news companies is better. References to “private ownership” generally entail some picture of a business group creating an un-biased, non-partisan foothold in the media. This soft, fuzzy picture is skewed here: a controlling interest brags about his ability to directly shape information so that bits of his message have a better chance of resonating.
There has been much thought given to a situation where an individual owner acts like a demonized version of a profit-hungry corporation, with motives that are perhaps more convoluted.. Checks in the business model – where a bidder with the most resources gets the largest benefits – have come to haunt the public. In its tirade against large news corporations and the advertising they seek, the public has forgotten that favored news coverage is just as dangerous when it comes from a less-than ideal individual owner. Perhaps the controlling individual interest model that has been dubbed “savior-like” should be reconsidered.
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