ENGELHARD: Salinger and the art of despair
By Jack Engelhard
Billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal…this is the man who donated $27 million to Palestinian terrorists during a Saudi “telethon.”
This is the man who offered Mayor Rudy $10 million upon the proposition that we, the United States, admit that we ourselves were responsible for 9/11.
Rudy said, “No thanks.”
Rupert Murdoch, however, said thanks when Alwaleed offered to buy a share of Murdoch’s empire, and thus Alwaleed became the company’s second largest shareholder at 10 percent. Or perhaps it was son James Murdoch who invited in the Prince. Rupert is known as a friend of Israel.
Not so James, who at this moment sits on the hot seat before an investigative committee at Parliament on the matter of widespread phone/email-hacking – COINCIDENTALLY on 9/11 survivors — which threatens to bring down the entire Murdoch empire. James Murdoch once referred to those “F…Israelis” in a meeting with former prime minister Tony Blair – as revealed by Blair’s top aide Alastair Campbell.
Liberals, before cheering against Fox News…remember the sins of Jayson Blair at The New York Times and the sins CNN in Middle East reporting when news director Eason Jordan admitted that CNN withheld Saddam’s atrocities to keep its news operation safe and secure in Baghdad and elsewhere…and the sins of Washington Post’s Janet Cooke scandal, where a faked story won a Pulitzer. So hold the gloating.
Let’s not even talk about the sins of the BBC and NPR, which fired its only African-American reporter.
Anyway, did Murdoch – Rupert or James or both – make a bargain with the devil? Was this a smart move?
Alwaleed immediately muscled influence over news being broadcast on Fox and surely elsewhere. Here’s a page (page 87) from the paperback and Kindle version of “The Bathsheba Deadline” – “and this Arab sheik already had some say about what went out over the airwaves. A banner that spoke of MUSLIM RIOTS IN FRANCE was hastily changed at Fox to CIVIC DISORDERS IN FRANCE after a phone call from the sheik.”
At this moment Rupert and James sit before Parliament in and ongoing process to save the Murdoch Empire.
Rupert, his head bowed, opened by saying, “This is the most humble day of my life.”
Heads have already rolled even to the top of Scotland Yard, all because of ties to Murdoch, who in my view is a good man. You can quote me on this. In my eyes as a novelist I see him as an outsider – despite his power and wealth. He is not a member of the Establishment. Here in the United States, Fox News is regarded as an intruder among the establishment (leftist) press, all because it dares to provide a different voice.
Many are to blame for Rupert’s troubles – but what about Prince Alwaleed bin Talal?
Do you believe in curses?
About the author: Novelist Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestseller “Indecent Proposal” that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His newsroom thriller “The Bathsheba Deadline,” focuses on a media empire where the action starts in Manhattan and spreads across the globe into the Middle East. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0595470793/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=11MMRK4AKDRMT457BB0B&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846
Website – www.jackengelhard.com
About the author