Could it be that Fox News’ Saudi Arabian co-owner helped fund the Imam who’s at the center of the distortion-crammed controversy over the proposed mosque two blocks away from Ground Zero? According to a report, the answer is yes:
The second largest shareholder in News Corp. — the parent company of Fox News — has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to causes linked to the imam planning to build a Muslim community center and mosque near Ground Zero in Manhattan, says a report from Yahoo!News.
According to the report from Yahoo!’s John Cook, Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, who owns seven percent of News Corp., “has directly funded [Imam Feisal Abdul] Rauf’s projects to the tune of more than $300,000.”
Cook reports that Prince Al-Waleed’s personal charity, the Kingdom Foundation, donated $305,000 to Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow, a project sponsored by two of Rauf’s initiatives, the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative, which is building the Manhattan mosque.
Should we take bets now about how many seconds this report, if true, will get when it’s mentioned on Fox News?
Or if it’s mentioned at all?
UPDATE: But wait..there’s more. It turns out that Fox News’ owner Rupert Murdoch’s company also published the Imam’s book (see end of THIS POST).
Should we take bets now about how many seconds this report, if true, will get when it’s mentioned on Fox News?
Or if it’s mentioned at all?
Prediction: If it’s mentioned it’ll be mentioned quickly in passing and glossed over as the Imam is attacked as a radical extremist who just happened to be sent overseas by the Bush administration as well as the Obama administration.. So Bush…Obama…and Murdoch are all in this plot to bolster up a dangerous radical together? (Do oranges product apple juice?)
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.