Monday, December 26, 2011

News station of King Fahd's brother-in-law

Ahmet from Tunisia sent me this:  "Asad, Alarabiya is finding the eccentric fatwas issued by religious kooks in 2011 somehow cute that it merits a report and commentary of 8 minutes in its news hour. It is hard not escape the underlying romanticism of it all. Yes, the professional standards of Aljazeera and Al Arabiya are now close to being at the same level, but the latter knack for gossip and sleaze still dubiously distinguish it. An example, mind you, the other day the Palestinian anchor of Alarabiya Mayssoun Azzam was supposed to ask an Ennahda member about the latest on the formation of the government; her very first question was: Could you confirm to us the news coming out of Tunisia about the marriage of president Moncef Marzouki with the Minister of Woman affairs Sihem Badi? It was nothing but a rumor circulating on Facebook, and was categorically rejected by Marzouki himself."