The conservative Fox News network was ordered to back down on its coverage of the Paris riots after a billionaire Saudi prince and shareholder of its parent company News Corporation complained to Rupert Murdoch.
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud said he called Murdoch to voice his concerns over Fox’s coverage of the disturbances that rocked France after watching the channel during a recent trip to Paris.
Major French cities suffered weeks of civil disturbances and thousands of cars were torched after mostly Arab and African immigrants from poor areas of the country went on the rampage following the accidental death of two teenage boys who were allegedly being pursued by police.
The prince said he took offence to a strapline running along the bottom of the screen on Fox News that described the disturbances as “Muslim riots in Paris”.
Within 30 minutes of the call, Fox had changed the strap line to “civil riots in Paris”.
Prince Alwaleed told the Arab and World Media Conference held in Dubai last week: “I picked up the phone and called Murdoch and said that I was speaking not as a shareholder, but as a viewer of Fox. I said that these are not Muslim riots, they are riots.
“He investigated the matter and called Fox and within half an hour it was changed from ‘Muslim riots’ to ‘civil riots’.”
The billionaire prince holds 5.46% of voting shares in News Corporation after upping his stake in the media giant earlier this year. The investment in NewsCorp by Alwaleed’s Kingdom Holding’s company replaced the 3% of non-voting shares he previously held.
Fox News has been criticised for its right-wing news agenda and support for the Bush administration’s war in Iraq. Despite failing to make significant gains in international audiences, the network has taken viewers away from CNN and MSNBC domestically and claims to be the number one news network in America.
Prince Alwaleed’s comments came as he was discussing the importance for people in the Arab world to help change the West’s perception of the region and Islam.
“We can change the view of Westerners, but the effort should be made from our side,” he said.
During the interview with Time magazine’s managing editor Jim Kelly, Prince Alwaleed also said that the multiple television stations and hundreds of newspapers currently operating in Iraq was giving “too many messages” to the Iraqi people.
He said the number should have been limited to one television station and one newspaper until stability had been restored in the country.
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