Will Prince Waleed Change Fox's Terrorism Coverage?

By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

Frank Gaffney has an article in yesterday's Front Page Magazine analyzing the possible effect of Prince Waleed bin Talal's new voting stake in the News Corporation, which owns the Fox News Network.  Following a challenge to Rupert Murdoch's control of NewsCorp, Prince Waleed stepped in, shifting his NewsCorp stock from non-voting to voting shares and increasing his stake from 3% to 5.46%.  Since 9/11, Fox has been an important critic of Islamic radicalism, and has broadcast a number of hard-hitting stories exposing Saudi Arabia's pernicious Wahhabi indoctrination.  Gaffney asks a vital question:  Will Prince Waleed's share in NewsCorp change Fox's coverage of the war on terror?

Gaffney notes that Prince Waleed's 5.46% stake makes him NewsCorp's fourth largest voting shareholder.  Prince Waleed, it should be remembered, visited Ground Zero shortly after the 9/11 attacks and offered then-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani a $10 million check for relief efforts.  However, the money was followed in short order by Prince Waleed's statement linking 9/11 to U.S. support for Israel:

At times like this one, we must address some of the issues that led to such a criminal attack. I believe the government of the United States of America should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause.

In response, Giuliani returned Prince Waleed's check, stating that "[t]here is no moral equivalent for this attack," and that the terrorists "lost any right to ask for justification when they slaughtered . . . innocent people."  In fact, he said that Prince Waleed's statements were not only wrong, but that "they're part of the problem."

With this background in mind, here's how Gaffney frames the question of what Prince Waleed's impact on NewsCorp will be:

Can we rely on Rupert Murdoch to keep the Saudi prince from abusing his new platforms?  Perhaps not.  After all, Mr. Murdoch is having succession, financial, and other problems with his business empire.  In fact, he was reportedly so concerned about losing control of the News Corporation that he arranged to put a "poison pill" defense in place to stop a hostile takeover bid from one of his rivals, media magnate John Malone. . . .  While a senior Fox executive recently (privately) professed no concern on this score, the track record of Prince Al-Waleed, the Islamist interests of his family and kingdom, and the needs of Rupert Murdoch could constitute the media equivalent of a "perfect storm."  They may, indeed, translate into a worrisome new set of constraints on the network millions of Americans have come to rely upon for "fair and balanced" reporting.

I've appeared on the Fox News Channel with some frequency and have found it to be an excellent vehicle for disseminating important stories related to terrorism and Islamic extremism.  In fact, one of my recent appearances on The Big Story with John Gibson criticized the hateful messages in some of the Saudi literature distributed in the U.S. prison system.  While Prince Waleed's stake in NewsCorp does not necessarily mean that this will change, the situation is worth keeping an eye on.

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