Posted on 06/20/2002 7:15:56 AM PDT by max_rpf
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."
In addition, this would have the added benefit of shielding Israelis from exposure to Christianne Amanpour's poison. Wish we were so lucky.
TOO bad, no excuses or whinning. He's a fool and everytime Ted opens his mouth it shows.
Way to go FOX NEWS!
The Japanese Kamikaze pilots fought in open battle against a potent armed enemy. We may not agree with that tactic but we must grudgingly acknowledge that they were brave warriors.
The Palestinians suicide bombers attack "soft targets" in order to kill the elderly at banquets, teenagers at pizza parlors and children in buses. We have to acknowledge that they are despicable cowards.
So does Sharon. Ted's a lib and married to Hanoi Jane and all that--but he's also right on this one. Both sides are obviously engaging in terrorism.
Because the Guardian is seriously to the left of leftist Turner.
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