Israeli TV companies weigh taking CNN off the air

TEL AVIV, June 20 (Reuters) - Israeli television broadcasters are considering pulling the plug on the CNN news channel in protest at comments made by U.S. media mogul Ted Turner, officials and sources at the companies said on Thursday.

Turner, founder of the 24-hour Cable News Network, was quoted on Tuesday as saying the Israeli military was engaged in "terrorism" against the Palestinians that could be compared to Palestinian suicide bomber attacks on Israelis.

A senior board member at the YES satellite television broadcaster and a source close to the head of Israel's three cable providers, now engaged in a merger, said the companies would weigh taking the widely watched CNN off the air.

"At least two of us (board members) have demanded that YES management take CNN off the air for at least 24 hours in protest over what Ted Turner said," the board member, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

He said he expected a response from the chief executive of YES within the next few days.

Board members will also seek to have CNN permanently replaced by another all-news channel, he said.

A source close to Ram Belinkov, who will be chief executive of a merged company of the three cable providers -- Matav Cable Systems Media MATV.TA , Tevel and Golden Channels -- said the firms were "dissatisfied with CNN's political coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian situation".

"Turner's comments were the latest in a long line of biased coverage (against Israel)," the source said. "We are very dissatisfied with CNN's coverage. It's very problematic."

The source said Belinkov would meet CNN representatives in London within a couple of days and that the cable companies might soon reach an agreement to broadcast the Fox News Channel, owned by conservative Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch.

Removing CNN from the air would need the approval of the Israeli Satellite and Cable Television Broadcasting Council. The council has already granted approval to YES to broadcast Fox News, though the satellite company has not yet done so.

TBS, the parent company of CNN, said the cable companies' comments were "disappointing and truly puzzling".

Ron Ciccone, managing director of TBS Middle East, said TBS had assisted in the development of Israel's cable industry and its commitment in the region had been and remained absolute.

"Recently the marketing and content executives representing Israel's three combined cable companies approached TBS for help with their current financial difficulties. They have received a high level of understanding and cooperation from us.

"Effective commercial discussion between longstanding partners should be taking place at the negotiating table and not in the media," Ciccone said in a statement.

Eli Fastman, senior producer at Fox in Jerusalem, said he was opposed to taking CNN off the air but added that Fox would be broadcast in Israel regardless of what happened to CNN.

In an interview with London's Guardian newspaper, the outspoken Turner said the Israelis and Palestinians were "terrorising each other".

"The rich and the powerful, they don't need to resort to terrorism...The Palestinians are fighting with human suicide bombers -- that's all they have," said Turner, now vice chairman of AOL Time Warner Inc AOL.N .

"The Israelis...they've got one of the most powerful military machines in the world. The Palestinians have nothing. So who are the terrorists? I would make the case that both sides are involved in terrorism."

His comments, published on the morning of a suicide bus bombing in Jerusalem that killed 19 people, caused an uproar in Israel as it combats a 20-month-old Palestinian uprising against occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

At least 1,403 Palestinians and 539 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian revolt erupted in September 2000 after peace talks envisaging a Palestinian state stalled.

YES, 45 percent of which is held by state-controlled phone company Bezeq Israel Telecom BEZQ.TA , competes with the cable companies in providing television services in Israel.

YES has about 300,000 subscribers in Israel, compared with about 1.1 million for the cable companies combined.

HAH

Yes to air Fox News, in response to comments by CNN's Turner

By Ha'aretz Service

Yes satellite television will begin broadcasting the Fox News channel Thursday, in light of remarks made by CNN founder Ted Turner, equating IDF actions with terrorism, Israel Radio reported.

Even before Turner's comments, Israel's cable and satellite companies had received numerous letters from viewers requesting that the Fox News station be added to the viewing package, because they consider its coverage of the Middle East more balanced than CNN's, the radio said.

Yes had submitted the request to air Fox News to the Cable and Satellite TV Council some time ago, and in the last two days had stepped up contacts with the U.S. station. The deal was closed late Wednesday night.

Fox News was launched in 1996 and is owned by Rupert Murdoch.

Yona Wiesenthal, Yes's deputy CEO for marketing and content, said broadcasts would begin Thursday, and that the station number allotted to Fox News was close to that of CNN's. "Fox News broadcasts will be available to all Yes customers as part of the basic channel package for next few months," he told Israel Radio. "The channel will be broadcast on channel 25, while CNN is broadcast on channel 26. The proximity of the channels symbolizes that there is an alternative at the touch of a button."

Communication Minister Reuven Rivlin said Wednesday that CNN "has broken all the limits and red lines in the way it covered Israel." The minister said that if Turner had made his comments in Israel, he would have been declared persona non grata.

Turner was quoted Tuesday as saying Israel was engaged in "terrorism" against the Palestinians that could be compared to the suicide bomb attacks.

"Right now, aren't the Israelis and the Palestinians both terrorizing each other?" the 63-year-old billionaire founder of the 24-hour CNN news network said in an interview with the Guardian newspaper.

"The rich and the powerful, they don't need to resort to terrorism... The Palestinians are fighting with human suicide bombers - that's all they have.

"The Israelis... they've got one of the most powerful military machines in the world. The Palestinians have nothing. So who are the terrorists? I would make the case that both sides are involved in terrorism."

Later Tuesday, Turner said he regretted "any implication that I believe the actions taken by Israel to protect its people are equal to terrorism."

"My comments were part of a long and extensive interview that I gave two months ago when I was condemning the loss of human life," said Turner.

"The violence in the Middle East has reached an intolerable level, and in that interview I condemned that violence on whatever side it may come."

CNN issued a statement Tuedsay saying Turner "has no operational or editorial oversight of CNN" and was speaking for himself in the comments he made April 16 that were published Tuesday by The Guardian newspaper in London."

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