Media Watch 19 April 2015
Al Jazeera America CEO Ehab Al Shihabi (right), with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. (Source: Al Jazeera America)
The chief executive of Al Jazeera America, Palestinian businessman Ehab Al Shihabi, was mocked as a representative of “Hamas” by top Hollywood executives, leaked emails show.
The exchange between Michael Lynton, CEO of Sony Entertainment and Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Gary L. Ginsberg, executive vice president of marketing and communications at Time Warner, shows that Al Shihabi’s efforts to make Al Jazeera more palatable, in part by censoring voices critical of Israel, have not met with success.
The correspondence, recently released by Wikileaks, includes an email dated 30 April 2014 from Al Shihabi to Sony’s Lynton.
Al Shihabi politely thanks Lynton “for your time yesterday” and proposes a joint project – “a documentary that might work for both of us to try with a theatrical screening release.”
Al Shihabi then invites Lynton to visit Al Jazeera America’s New York studios and to be his guest at a gala dinner honoring Dick Parsons, the banker and former chair of Time Warner, which Al Jazeera was sponsoring.
Lynton then forwarded the email to Ginsberg at Time Warner, along with the apparently sarcastic comments “they are excellent on Israel. my new friend.”
In a similar mocking tone, Ginsberg responds to Lynton: “Ur now on your way to ur beloved Hamas!!”
Finally, Lynton responds “en shala” – or inshallah – a very common Arabic phrase literally meaning “God willing” but used in the sense of the English “hopefully.”
Censorship at Al Jazeera
Al Shihabi made headlines in May 2013, after he ordered his protegé Imad Musa, manager of online for Al Jazeera English, to remove an article by Columbia University professor Joseph Massad.
The Electronic Intifada reported that Al Shihabi ordered the censorship after the article had come under fire from high-profile Zionist commentators, including The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, who grossly distorted Massad’s article and escalated their defamation and slurs against him.
Al Shihabi, a career management consultant with no background in journalism and no formal editorial role, also feared that the article would hurt the then imminent launch of the Qatar-based network’s new venture Al Jazeera America.
But the uproar over what amounted to political censorship forced Al Jazeera to back down and put Massad’s article, “The Last of the Semites,” back online.
In a scathing internal email leaked to Glenn Greenwald at The Guardian a couple of months later, Al Jazeera insider Marwan Bishara accused Al Shihabi of aiming to water down the network’s editorial voice and independence to appeal to the American “Main Street.”
Bishara also criticized Al Shihabi’s meetings with the likes of Rahm Emanuel, the notoriously pro-Israel Chicago mayor and former White House chief of staff.
“You should make no more appearances in public forums or photo-ups with political characters, shady or otherwise, that would only hurt us on the long run,” Bishara scolded Al Shihabi.
Bishara also advised Al Shihabi against trying “to appease those who won’t, or don’t necessarily want to be, appeased.”
Nonetheless Al Shihabi apparently continued – without success – to curry favor with anti-Palestinian media big wigs.
Al Jazeera also did not learn its lesson: in March 2014, Musa again ordered the removal of an article by Massad alleging it “had elements of defamation, slander and libel.”
The article, “The Dahlan Factor,” along with a response from Massad to Musa’s unsubtantiated claims, was subsequently published by The Electronic Intifada.
Comments
fragile Americans
Permalink Artemis replied on
Here in Europe one can view Al Jazeera English. It's astonishing that Al Jazeera America decided not to air Al Jazeera English programmes, especially so because AJE has itself long been neutered and bears no resemblance to what it was in its heyday, e.g. back in 2008 when Ayman Mohyeldin reported from the ground in Gaza. What does it tell us when even AJE's now-timid reporting is deemed to be beyond the pale for Americans...?
Al Jazeera's reporting
Permalink Paul Lookman replied on
With CNN and BBC World distorting world news, for a number of years I have watched Al Jazeera English, but now only sporadically as I question its neutrality. The one programme that I find interesting is Empire from Marwan Bishara. Today, channels like RT ('the propaganda bullhorn') and Press TV (removed from Astra, but available online) are my favourite sources of information.
Al Jazeera shouldn't try to appease the Zionist machine
Permalink Pauline replied on
Ehab Al Shihabi has proven that self-censorship will not mollify Zionists who will not accept critical or even simply objective coverage of Israel/Palestine. Al Jazeera needs to focus on thorough reporting and critical commentary instead of trying to appease the Zionist machine~!
More Thorough Reporting and Critical Commentary
Permalink lofty1 replied on
Yes, they should respond with more thorough reporting and critical commentary. They would do good to educate Americans about the history of Zionism in Israel and the fact that not all Jews are Zionists.