Figures. The Obama administration, which refuses to allow any of its representatives to appear on Fox News, proudly boasts that it has “a great relationship” with the anti-American Al-Jazeera television network.
Politicom.com has the defining story:
Seven years after then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called the broadcaster’s reporting “vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable” and President George W. Bush joked about bombing it, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised it as “real news” in her recent Senate testimony.
Not only that, her staffers, as well as those of the CIA and the Obama White House, were attending the Congressional Correspondents’ Dinner as Al-Jazeera’s guests.
“They are a really important media entity, and we have a really great relationship with them,” said Dana Shell Smith, the State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for international media engagement, who speaks Arabic and has frequently appeared on the channel. “This administration has empowered those of us who actually do the communicating to be in a close relationship with Al-Jazeera. They understand that the relationship can’t consist of complaining to each other about the differences we have.”
… “The emir of Qatar come by the Oval Office today, and he owns Al-Jazeera basically,” Obama said in remarks recorded by CBS News’s Mark Knoller. “Pretty influential guy. He is a big booster, big promoter of democracy all throughout the Middle East. Reform, reform, reform. You’re seeing it on Al-Jazeera.”
Re-write that last paragraph thusly:
“Rupert Murdoch came by the Oval Office today and he owns Fox News basically,” Obama said. “Pretty influential guy. He’s a big booster, big promoter of democracy all throughout America. Reform, reform, reform. You’re seeing it all on Fox.”
We feel confident in saying that’s not going to happen anytime soon. The target of the reform rarely endorses the reformer.
Source: Politico
