On August 19th, Jon Stewart, host of The Day Show, aired a clip of the show Fox and Friends in which host Brian Kilmead and guest Dan Senor attacked the proposed Islamic Cultural Center near Ground Zero by defrauding the project’s founder, Imam Rauf.
In the clip, Kilmead and Senor discussed a $300,000 donation to the project by the Kingdom Holding Company, an Arabian outfit who’s leader “funds radical midrassas all over the world,” according to Senor. Their logic was simple: if the leader of the Kingdom Holding Company has ties to Islamic extremism and Imam Rauf has ties to the Kingdom Holding Company, then, by the correlative property, Imam Rauf has ties to Islamic extremism and ground zero mosque may be a base of operations for terrorism in America.
Stewart also pointed out that the hosts of Fox and Friends failed mention the name of the man who runs the Kingdom Holding Company, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of the Saudi Royal Family, a billionaire investor nicknamed the Saudi Arabian Warren Buffet. Alwaleed is known around the world for his his charitable donations, but in the United States, he became a household name in 2001 due a slight political mishap.
Following the attacks on 9/11, the Prince donated $10 million donation to the Twin Towers Fund. Unfortunately, the check was never deposited. Mayor Rudy Guiliani returned the money after Alwaleed said the United States’ history of pro-Israel policies may have alienated some Palestinians and cultivated ill-will among the extremists. While there’s no question as the lack of tact and sensitivity, such sentiments are not radical or even uncommon. Understandably, Mayor Guiliani was offended. He took Alwaleed’s words as an affront to the American people and a justification for the attacks. He famously returned the $10 million check, stating that such claims are “very, very dangerous,” “part of the problem.”
So how could the name of a man tied to a controversial story surrounding the most severe terrorist in American history have slipped the mind of Kilmead and Senor? After all, they should know his name very well. He’s the second largest shareholder of News Corporation, the company that owns Fox News. Could it be, as Stewart pointed out, that they avoided using his name to prevent Fox viewers from Googling him and learning of their financial ties?
After watching the episode, I was intrigued. How involved is Alwaleed bin Talal in News Corporation? Does he any influence over Fox News?
As it turns out, Alwaleed is more than a passive investor who saw a financial opportunity. He’s a business partner of Ruper Murdoch, owner of News Corporation. His involvement began in 1999, when he purchased 5% of the company. Today, he owns 7%, the largest share outside the Murdoch Family, which owns 30%.
In 2004, John Malone, of Liberty Media group, a rival media company, announced that he would consider increasing his company’s stake in News Corporation, threatening Murdoch’s majority holding. Murdoch then issued a poison pill provision aimed at blocking Malone. This angered investors, who threatened to sue News Corporation.
In the midst of the controversy, Alwaleed, announced he would be willing to increase his stake in News Corp. to provide Murdoch with fnancial support. This was finalized on September 6, 2005 when Alwaleed increased his holdings to 5.46% of voting shares, which grant the stockholder the right to vote on a number of matters related to the administration of a company, including who will sit on the board of directors.
Commenting on his increased stake, Alwaleed said, “Last November I said that I had the utmost confidence in Mr. Murdoch, his management team and his succession planning, and that if necessary, the Kingdom companies would replace their non-voting shares with voting shares…The Kingdom companies now own a significant interest in News Corporation voting shares and may purchase more if the situation warrants.”
Later that year, while speaking at the Arab and World Media Conference in Dubai, Alwaleed discussed how he persuaded Murdoch to change Fox News’ coverage of street protests in France involving Muslims. Fox had displayed a banner that dubbed them “Muslim riots,” which Alwaleed felt was inaccurate. “I picked up the phone and called Murdoch,” Alwaleed said, “and told him these are not Muslim riots, these are riots out of poverty…Within 30 minutes, the title was changed from Muslim riots to civil riots.”
In 2008, Alwaleed’s Rotana Media Group and News Corporation partnered to launch two Fox-branded English television channels. The following year, News Corp. acquired a 10% stake in Rotana wiht an option to acquire another 10% in the future. Rotana also agreed to distribute Fox News DVDs throughout the Middle East.
Last January, Alwaleed appeared on The Charlie Rose Show and discussed his relationship with Rupert Murdoch and his son, James. Alwaleed said: “I met with Mr. Rupert Murdoch and Mr. James Murdoch. We are always in tough. I’m second biggest shareholder there. And no doubt that News Corp is moving on all the fronts. You’ve seen how FOX rating is skyrocketing…James is now managing Europe and Asia…I’ll be the first one to nominate him to be the successor of Mr. Rupert Murdoch, god forbid if something happens to him…I have full confidence in [James], full trust in him, and he’s capable. He’s really Rupert Murdoch in the making, and he’s almost there now.”
Over the past 10 years, Fox News has routinely lambasted Alwaleed on the air and taken jabs at anyone accepting one of his donations, with one exception. On January 15, 2010, Alwaleed was a guest on Your World with Neil Cavuto. For the first time, a Fox personality painted Alwaleed in a positive light. Introducing the segment, Cavuto said, “he [Alwaleed] takes very few interviews, but made a big exception for Fox Business and yours truly. It was extraordinary, as was his take on this country and this president” (brackets mine). Throughout the interview, Cavuto treated the Prince with the highest level of respect, even calling him “Your Highness.”
Interestingly, the Prince’s royal treatment on Fox came shortly after he increased his stake in News Corporation yet again. According to News Corporation’s SEC filings, report that Alwaleed had just increased his ownership to 7% of voting stock, an investment of nearly $2 billion and more than anyone apart from Rupert Murdoch himself.
For now, I can’t help but wonder how the folks over at Fox and Friends feel working for a man that be funding “radical midrassas all over the world.” In fact, I wonder how a lot of Fox pundits feel.
In 2001, Bill Sammon referred to Alwaleed’s money as “blood money.” Later that year Sean Hannity said that he would ”have nothing to do” with the Prince’s money, then in 2005 he denounced Harvard University and Georgetown for accepting donations from the Kingdom Holding Company. In June of this year, Glenn Beck said that Alwaleed flew his money into the twin towers and that America “doesn’t want your money.” Laura Ingraham, has echoed the sentiments of Brian Kilmead and Dan Senor, suggesting that accepting “Arabian money” was in some way suspicious.
Such close financial ties to Alwaleed should bother Sammon, Hannity, Beck, Ingraham, and Kilmead. If they truly believe that Alwaleed funds Islamic extremism, they should be losing sleep over the fact that their work on Fox News may be filling the coffers of terrorist cells. They should also consider their hypocrisy, knocking American universities and Imam Rauf for accepting money from Alwaleed, then turning around and doing the same. On the other hand, maybe they don’t actually believe that Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is such a suspicious character. Maybe they’re just slinging conservative rhetoric.
I’m not sure which is worse, the slander, the hypocrisy, or the dishonesty. One thing’s for sure, the folks over at Fox News are perfectly comfortable operating with the lowest level of journalistic integrity. So much for being fair and balanced.
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It should be noted, there’s little to no evidence that Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is tied to “radical midrassas” or any form of Islamic extremism. He is known as a moderate Muslim who has financially supported groups dedicated to American-Islamic relations.