Monday, January 31, 2011

Don't mess with Aljazeera

The Saudi government learned that lesson, the hard way.  When Aljazeera started and it expressed a wide spectrum of opinions (much more than now), Saudi-owned media (some 95% of all Arab media, at least) launched fierce campaigns against Aljazeera.  Then they realized they failed and orchestrated the reconciliation with Qatar, which certainly lowered if not eliminated the anti-Saudi tone of Aljazeera (since that reconciliation I have not been invited once to discuss Saudi or Jordanian affairs when my first ever appearance on Aljazeera was about Saudi Arabia).   I am told by higher ups in Aljazeera that Prince Nayif was instrumental in the reconciliation with Qatar because he told his brothers that Aljazeera can really affect stability and dissent in the kingdom of horrors.  Mubarak is dumb: he closed down Aljazeera's offices and arrested Aljazeera correspondents (can you imagine the international uproar of Syria or Iran did that?).  So what did Aljazeera do? It has gone all out.  Aljazeera is clearly now bent on bringing down Mubarak's regime.  The coverage is non-stop.  All other programmings have been suspended.  Take that, Husni and Jamal Mubarak.