Gaza media blackout
The Israeli siege of Gaza plus Obama, Murdoch and the media.
This week on The Listening Post, the blockade on Gaza that is creating a media blackout and Rupert Murdoch, Barack Obama and the media.
 |
| The blockade of Gaza has now been extended to the media [GALLO/GETTY] |
In this week’s News Divide we turn our attention to the Israeli blockade of Gaza, which has now been extended to the media, creating a news blackout that has severely restricted the reporting of the suffering in Gaza to the outside world.
In the last few weeks, Israel has placed a blanket ban on the flow of all international journalists into Gaza.
The Israeli government denies that the blockade is aimed at the media and says it has to do with security concerns, rather than controlling information.
In part two, we look at the media scene in the US post-George Bush.
What will it look like in the new Obama political era? In particular, what will the Obama presidency mean for the aggressively pro-Bush media like the Rupert Murdoch owned Fox News and Wall Street Journal?
 |
| How will Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News adjust to a new US president? [GALLO/GETTY] |
It is often commented that Murdoch is a kingmaker: He has the power to cement the careers of presidents and prime ministers the world over.
But having endorsed the Republicans during this year’s historic US presidential election campaign, how will the Murdoch brand adapt to the new Democrat popularity and reality?
We will examine how the Obama effect might impact the Murdoch empire.
In this week’s Newsbytes: the Palestinian appeal for a peace deal through the Israeli press – in Hebrew; the Iranian/Canadian blogger arrested in Iran on charges of spying for Israel; reports on internet censorship in Iran of material deemed ‘anti-Islamic’; the cost of ailing US Arabic language news channel Al Hurra; and Zimbabwean cameraman Mike Saburi: the winner of this year’s Mo Amin award.
Finally, the seminal Monty Python comedy troupe has posted its back catalogue of jokes and sketches for all to enjoy, for free, on YouTube by launching their own channel on the site. To publicise this, the Pythons have posted a video on the channel, which can be found here and is our Internet Video of the Week.
This episode of The Listening Post aired from Friday, November 28, 2008