The Lebanese Bloggers: New TV

Sunday, February 26, 2006

New TV

New TV news editors should really get a life. I had heard much about the remarks they make during their evening news and I am already sick of the propaganda/filtering/selectivity on Future and LBC, so I thought I’d give NTV a try. I picked the worst day, which was when Rice came to Lebanon.

NTV actually dedicated more than 10% (3 - 4 minutes) of their evening news duration to the bashing of PM Saniora for, get this, kissing (on the cheeks) Condi Rice. Around the end of the news, there was a banner at the bottom of the screen “Hajj Fouad kisses Miss Condoleezza”.

So I stayed and waited, the news item went on something like this:

“PM Siniora insisted today on kissing US Secretary of State Rice on both cheeks……” then some more talk about personal remarks during the visit and then “Just a reminder, people coming back from the pilgrimage to the holy sites should refrain from touching women.”

Again, NTV people. Get a life.

12 comments:

JoseyWales said...: Thanks Hassan,

I'm really reassured now, that the national debate in parliament, next week, will tackle the important issues.

How can it not? Nabih Berri's staffers are on top of things, such as kissing protocol for Hejjaj, the number one issue for many Lebanese families.

We are a nation of clowns.; 10:00 AM
Hassan said...: JW,

I get your point, but a small correction is due. Berri owns NBN. Tahsin Khayat owns NTV.

Yes, it is a nation of clowns.; 10:09 AM
JoseyWales said...: Oops Hassan, my mistake. Thanks for the correction.

I guess we'll have to wait for Tahsin to become PM now, for the kissing protocol to be addressed properly. ;); 11:07 AM
Charles Malik said...: Hassan,

New TV was also playing off of Lebanese racism against blacks.

Saniora proved himself to be a gentleman. However, a very little reported story is making its way around the Middle East correspondents. Condi is being treated horribly in the Arab capitals.

Allegedly, many remarks have been made about her sexuality and ethnicity.; 12:44 PM
Anonymous said...: Can u tell us more about Tahsin Khayat?? who is he?? is he politically linked to anybody???

thx; 1:15 PM
Dr Victorino de la Vega said...: I didn’t see the program in question, so I can’t really judge…but I know that unlike its more generously endowed competitors such as Saudi-owned networks Al-Hayat LBC (with an overtly neo-Nazi Phalange editorial line) and Future TV (that champions King Fahd’s duplicitous brand of sugar-coated Wahhabism-Lite), NTV always had a generally secular modernist outlook: it has the highest proportion of women anchors amongst Arab networks (one of them is actually Sudanese which proves the vacuity of your accusations) and never engaged in anti-Christian or anti-Shiite propaganda (unlike Future TV, Al-Nahar and other Saudi-owned Lebanese media).

As a matter of fact, leading Middle-Eastern Christian leaders such as Michel Aoun, Tareq Aziz, and Bishop Hazim only had words of praise for New TV.; 1:52 PM
Hassan said...: Anon,

There was a time when we could describe Tahsin Khayat as the Qatar version of Hariri. Basically he had lots of funding from Qatar, among others, probably, and he conducted politics as a staunch opponent of Rafic Hariri, part as a face of the Saudi-Qatari animosity. This same animosity is part of why KSA needed to create Al-Arabiya to stand up to Al-Jazeera.

Back to Khayat, he also funds Najah Wakim's Commoners movement (Shaab). Wakim is the author of “Black Hands” which exposes supposed cases of corruption by Lebanese officials, but mostly Hariri.

Khayat also had many problems with the Lebanese security and was taken into custody once. If I recall correctly, he had terribly tense relations with Jamil Sayyed, one of the strongest allies of Syria back then.

NTV is not the God-sent TV station that Dr. Vic portrays, but as I said in my post, it has its merits in that it is presenting the other perspectives for those among us who are tired of being bombarded with the crap from Future and LBC. Keep in mind that, at a time when LBC was boycotting Aoun, he was very well covered by NTV.; 2:34 PM
Hassan said...: LP,

Can you please post a few links? This is a shame indeed, but I don't expect much better from most of the Arab ruling classes.; 2:36 PM
Anonymous said...: Why-Discuss,

You said "" Lebanon democracy is now high in the agenda of the USA? make me laugh! ""

If you read your own post carefully you will see that YES Lebanon democracy is on the agenda. The US administration's failure in Iraq has forced them to look for success elsewhere. And where else in the Mid East is it easier for a democratic success then in Lebanon where there already exists some democracy and freedom?

When US self interest lines up with Lebanese national aspirations then why not kiss Condi??

International Politics is not static as Hizb/Iran/Syria want us to believe...; 7:56 PM
Dr Victorino de la Vega said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 6:19 PM
Dr Victorino de la Vega said...: Dude,

You sound like Marshall Pétain back in 1940: “We shouldn’t be afraid of the Fuhrer…the New World Order is not as “static” as Churchill and de Gaulle would like us to believe…blah blah …”

Funny how collaborationist clowns the world over have always had that pseudo-pragmatic penchant for “flexibility”…

I guess that helps them bow more easily!; 6:20 PM
Anonymous said...: Vic,

I was expecting a reply from you. As you are the KING of seeing the world in Black and White.

i.e. Sinora travels to Saudi Arabia therefore he is a wahabi. Therefore he will subjugate all Lebanese by the sword to turn the country into a Taliban like government.

That’s just the flipside to thinking that all US interests in the Middle East is to turn it into rubble.

So if I say that politics is not Static then your reply is that I am like those who tried for appeasement with the Nazi's. What a joke.

Get your head out of the sand.; 6:32 PM