MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

I knew there was a good reason I didn’t like watching many of these so-called “news” networks …

By Chris McGreal, The Guardian – “Osama bin Laden pondered the merits of US television news channels as he considered how to extract the best propaganda benefit from the tenth anniversary of 9/11 last year, and concluded that CBS was ‘close to being unbiased’.

But an American-born media adviser for al-Qaeda warned Bin Laden to beware of the broadcasters’ ‘cunning methods’ as he described Fox News as a channel in the ‘abyss’ that should ‘die in anger’, CNN as too close to the US government and MSNBC as questionable after it fired one of its most prominent presenters, Keith Olbermann…

A US-born al-Qaida spokesman, Adam Gadahn, wrote back to Bin Laden laying the merits or otherwise of using US news stations to mark the ‘Manhattan battle’ as it is referred to in the memo.

Fox News is dismissed because it ‘falls into the abyss as you know, and lacks neutrality too’.

“I used to think that MSNBC channel may be good and neutral a bit, but is has lately fired two of the most famous journalists – Keith Olbermann and Octavia Nasser the Lebanese,” wrote Gadahn.

In fact, Nasser was sacked from CNN after she sent a tweet mourning the death of a Hezbollah leader. Olbermann was dismissed for making financial donations to Democratic party politicians.

CNN is questioned, although its Arabic ‘version brings good and detailed reports’.

‘As for the neutrality of CNN in English, it seems to be in cooperation with the government more than the others (except Fox News of course),’ he said.

Gadhan describes ABC as ‘all right’:

‘Actually it could be one of the best channels, as far as we are concerned. It is interested in al-Qaida issues, particularly the journalist Brian Ross, who is specialised in terrorism. The channel is still proud for its interview with the shaykh (Bin Laden),’ he said. ‘CBS channel was mentioned by the shaykh. I see that it is like the other channels, but it has a famous programme (60 Minutes) that has some popularity and a good reputation for its long broadcasting time. Only god knows the reality, as I am not really in a position to do so.'” Read more.