To date, most of the assassination threats against Obama have come from American extremists spewing bilious conspiracy theories about Obama's religion. (Never mind that the same people vilified him for sitting in the pews of the Christian church of Reverend Jeremiah Wright.) So the insane fundamentalists of the world all agree they want to off Obama; they just can't agree why.

Collateral damage in this assassination attempt: Al Jazeera, the Middle Eastern news network, which has been trying to shed its pro-terrorist image in the Western world. The would-be assassin was carrying an identity card, apparently forged, claiming he worked for the network's Istanbul bureau. The network denied any association with the man.

There is no question the killing was terrible. It apparently took place at the Buffalo, New York offices of the cable network, the first English-language channel for Muslim Americans. Police said they went there under direction from Hassan. They found Aasiya Hassan's body was found lying in an office hallway. The head was nearby.

A National Organization for Women officer called the killing "apparently a terroristic version of 'honor killing.'" A local Muslim community leader and the Bridges news director disputed that, saying it was a simple domestic violence case.

America's anti-Muslim bigots, including those who dogged Barack Obama's presidential campaign, are unlikely to debate the nuances of the case.

Nor are everyday Americans, unfortunately, given Bridges' small reach. Which is too bad; after Al Jazeera English lost its top American anchor in March in part over "signs off anti-Americanism creeping into the coverage," there's been a need for a network that could credibly bridge Western and Middle Eastern cultures and make Arab television something other than a punchline to a media joke.

(Pictures: AP, Bridges TV)  

I asked Zaif about his gadget. His response was pretty much the same as everyone who owns an iPhone.

"I'm addicted," he said, "the internet is great on this, very fast."

He proceeded to show myself and our film crew his favourite websites. I half expected him to log on and show us 'Taliban Twitter'.

Just a year ago, the Taliban was threatening to blow up cell-phone towers if wireless operators didn't observe a curfew, ostensibly to prevent attacks by the American military. Which was a bit silly, since the U.S. Army has access to satellite phones. Of course, the Taliban didn't have a technophile like Zaif advising them back then. When the conservative religious movement ruled Afghanistan, it banned almost all modern technologies.

(Photo via Al Jazeera English)

GlobalPost.com has launched! It's a big new Boston-based news site (65 foreign correspondents!) that will focus on international enterprise journalism. "This is the perfect time [to launch] for many reasons," said the editor. "Most of all, there is an enormous void in foreign coverage by the American news media." That is absolutely true and anyone who believes in journalism should pray for the success of this enterprise, although there's a better than average chance that this is in fact a horrible time to launch. [Boston.com]

Guess who just got some official press credentials from the NYPD? Some bloggers! They almost had to go to court for them, though. The key beneficiary: civic gadflies. [City Room]

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer officially has 60 days to live unless somebody buys it, which, you know, unlikely. Staffers are sad. Idea: see if GlobalPost.com is hiring. [Seattle PI]


Howie Kurtz reports: even though we have a black president, there aren't that many black White House reporters! As much as we would like to mock Howie Kurtz, this is true, and deserves to be pointed out once in a while. Next, stories on how even though we have a black president, there aren't that many black people in advertising/ media/ academia/ corporate America/ the NHL. [Washington Post]


Israel is trying to win the PR war by barring reporters from Gaza (the army also has its own YouTube channel). So you know who has the best access to this war? Al-Jazeera! You know who watches Al-Jazeera in the US? Just about nobody, due to the general bitchassness of cable companies. [NYT] Well here's some for you:

If you're watching at home in U.S. America, you're probably inclined to think "America!" because not only does your capacity for snack food consumption mean NBC is raking in the most ad revenue in broadcasting the games, US media outlets conveniently ranks the countries in terms of "medals won," whereby the U.S. wins (by a hair!) and sits atop the official Medal Count, whereas over in China — and Hong Kong — they're ranking the countries in terms of gold medals scored, and China's winning that race by like 96. (Okay, 17.) In search of true journalistic objectivity we decided to consult some news sites representing countries without a proverbial "horse" in this race. Al-Jazeera!

And guess what, Osama Bin Laden's mouthpiece says we won. They know what side of the balance of superpower their anti-hegemonic crusade is buttered (guns-ed?) on!

Al Jazeera
China Daily (Please note the awesome animated flame on this site!)
Related: Did Bush Really Want To Bomb Al Jazeera? [The Nation]

...says West's press secretary, Donna Brosemer: "I spoke with the FBI, and they said we were right to have alerted them."

See, West has to be extra careful because he brutalized some Iraqi in Iraq and the liberals wanted to court martial him. He escaped that, but now he is scared of what the Arabs might do to him within our own great homeland, possibly in concert with the liberals. NEVER FORGET.

Al Jazeera English confirmed they were trying to "interview" West, so no one was impersonating one of their staff and trying to trick West that way. But he still feels like he dodged a bullet, saying, "You know they are going to pull some tricks... I was not about to be a puppet for Al Jazeera."

West's district, by the way, is supposedly home to conservative pundits Rush Limbaugh, Matt Drudge and Ann Coulter. So you know where the killer pool parties are happening this summer.

[Daily News]

The Arabic news network Al Jazeera has signed a five-year distribution deal with Munich-based Studio100 Media to broadcast the live-action children's series "Bumba the Clown." Bumba is a moon-faced circus harlequin who plays the drums and imparts pearls of wisdom to the pre-K set (see YouTube here.) One Belgian IMDB reviewer with a 9-month-old who can't get enough raves: "The show revolves round a yellow dressed clown and his friends. There's another clown, a bear, a rhino, an elephant, an Asian girl and I think there's a bird somewhere as well. Maybe a monkey. (You can't blame me for not remembering, I hardly watch it)." So goodbye cycles of violence in Iraq, Syria, Palestine and Sudan, where Bumba will now appear regularly.

The Middle East has wanted for quality kids programming. The last big name the region had was Hamas TV's Islamist mouse Farfour, an obvious Mickey rip-off, whose voice sounded like a Kate Bush orgasm and whose mission was to drive the Jews into the sea. Once Farfour was "martyred" at the hands of a Mossad agent (see below), his cousin Nahoul the Bee buzzed in to replace him as the cuddliest little jihadist that could. It probably doesn't bode well for the Palestinian biology curriculum that insects can be related to rodents, but there you have it.

[Variety]

See also this video of Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee's Fox-style makeover of Al Jazeera English.

Look east [Guardian]

• You can't pay people to read newspapers these days. [PEJ]
  
• Old Man Redstone loves him some Les Moonves. [NYP]
  
• NBC's Bob Wright: Crucified by the FCC. [WSJ]
  
• Time for Bruce Wasserstein to buy Field and Stream, etc.? [NYP]
  
• English-language Al-Jazeera will interview some has-been British politician. [Independent]