Jan 11, 2010

Fox News and the Henhouse

Joseph FarahBy Joseph Farah

Is Fox News your champion on cable TV?

Is Fox News your favorite source of news?

Is Fox News doing a great job of telling you what you need to know as a self-governing American citizen?

I suspect many reading this column will readily answer with an enthusiastic "yes" to all three of those rhetorical questions.

It is with that expectation I carefully alert you to a major and disturbing concern I have about the Fox News Channel – one based on personal experience as well as facts that have been withheld from you if Rupert Murdoch's alternative to CNN is your primary source of news.

Fox News is still inviting spokesmen from the Council on American-Islamic Relations on its programs where they pose as reasonable and legitimate representatives of a Muslim "civil rights" organization, despite the fact that CAIR has been definitively exposed by the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department as a "co-conspirator" in the largest terrorism-financing trial in American history, as a front for the international Muslim Brotherhood – the notorious parent organization of Hamas and al-Qaida – and for being closely associated with a large number of convicted terrorists or felons in terrorism probes, as well as suspected terrorists and active targets of terrorism investigations.

Recently, after the "Christmas bomber" almost killed 288 people over Detroit, CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper was given an entire segment on "The O'Reilly Factor" to argue that Muslims should never be profiled because being a follower of Islam doesn't make an airline passenger any more likely to be a terrorist than being a Swedish grandmother. The real danger, he explained, is that Muslims in America are going to be unfairly persecuted by bigoted Americans.

How could this happen, especially after the recent release of the devastating exposé of CAIR and its network of jihadi-supporting allies, "Muslim Mafia," which caused leaders of the bipartisan Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus to hold a Capitol Hill press conference demanding multiple federal investigations of CAIR?

More to the point, why has Fox News, among others in the media, blacked out any and all reporting on the blockbuster book, based in part on a daring and successful six-month-long, ACORN-style undercover operation to expose CAIR?

For some possible answers, let me introduce you to Saudi Prince al Waleed bin Talal, nephew of Saudi King Abdullah. You might remember Talal for his moment of infamy in the landscape of American political culture: In October 2001, right after the World Trade Center destruction at the hands of primarily Saudi terrorists, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani famously turned down his offer of a $10 million donation for disaster relief after Talal suggested U.S. policies in the Middle East were actually to blame for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

A few years ago, Talal, who then owned 5.5 percent of the Fox News Channel's parent company, News Corp., boasted of his influence on the network's principal owner, Rupert Murdoch, and explained how he persuaded him to alter on-air content about "Muslim riots" in France to make them more palatable to adherents of Islam.

More recently, Talal and Murdoch greatly expanded their business partnerships to give Murdoch a significant stake in Middle East television programming and advertising.

Meanwhile, CAIR, which claims falsely to receive "no support from any overseas group or government," was revealed in "Muslim Mafia" to have received a $500,000 gift from the very same Saudi Prince al Waleed bin Talal – not to mention gifts of $112,000 from Saudi Prince Abdullah bin Mosa'ad, at least $300,000 from the Saudi-based Organization of the Islamic Conference, $250,000 from the Islamic Development Bank and at least $17,000 from the American office of the Saudi-based International Islamic Relief Organization.

Do I begin to paint a picture of possible media compromise?

If Talal was able to influence content on the Fox News Channel back in 2005 as a minority shareholder in News Corp., is it not likely he and his Saudi friends would have a much more significant influence on Fox News today as major partners of the principal owner?

Until now, I have hesitated to be this blunt with my questions regarding Fox News Channel's editorial integrity. I like Fox News. There are many very good people working there. In many ways, Fox is a welcome breath of fresh air from the competition on both cable and broadcast television. But, at the same time, if I did not point out the way the network has apparently compromised itself on coverage of both the Middle East and key domestic issues through its ownership, I would be withholding important facts and analysis from you and compromising my own integrity.

The blackout of coverage of "Muslim Mafia" and the major lawsuit surrounding it, alongside Fox's continued pandering to CAIR – a group the U.S. Justice Department and FBI both say unequivocally is tied to terrorism – make it impossible for me to be silent any longer.

There's a problem at Fox – a big problem. The evidence suggests Saudi money is negatively influencing news coverage.

I could be wrong, of course.

Maybe people at Fox News are just blissfully unaware of the facts regarding CAIR. Maybe they just don't know CAIR has admitted fundraising for a major terrorist group. Maybe they don't know CAIR has been described by experts as a "cancerous pro-jihad group." Maybe they aren't aware of the fact that a CAIR adviser and speaker at its events says attacks like the one at Fort Hood are justified. Maybe they don't know CAIR gave thousands of dollars to the cop-killing leader of a violent sect intent on Islamizing the U.S. Maybe they don't know about CAIR's shocking al-Qaida ties. Maybe they never heard of "Muslim Mafia"and its documented proof (12,000 pages worth) of the way the infamous Muslim Brotherhood operates inside America. Maybe they missed WND's coverage of the CAIR lawsuit and the fact that CAIR has been targeted for investigation by the Internal Revenue Service and is lying about its funding sources. Maybe they don't know CAIR may not even legally exist. Maybe they just don't know.

If that's the case, however, then Fox just isn't the news organization many of you think and hope it is.

Related Links


Prince Al Waleed hails strategic alliances between two giants, Rotana and Disney - Al-Bawaba
Sarah Palin joins Fox News as a contributor in multi-year deal - New York Daily News
CAIR complains of profiling - OneNewsNow
Hear 'Muslim Mafia' lawyer on CAIR case - WorldNetDaily
Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that's Conspiring to Islamize America - P. David Gaubatz (Book)