Israel’s main cable provider may drop CNN from their menu.
With negotiations over a new contract at a stalemate, Israel’s largest cable provider is set to bump CNN from its program roster at the end of the month.
The news that the Atlanta-based network might soon disappear from a majority of Israeli living rooms will probably not come as a disappointment to a vocal segment of the Israeli viewing public that views the cable network’s coverage of Israel and the Middle East as biased against the Jewish state.
But don’t start cheering quite yet. Look what they’re thinking of replacing it with:
Yet the same crowd is unlikely to be very happy with this week’s announcement about the channel that the cable and telecommunications company HOT is poised to sign to a contact instead: Al-Jazeera English.
Yossi Lubaton, a spokesman for HOT, says a deal with the controversial Qatar-based news network is imminent. It “should be finalized within a few days,” the Israeli English-language daily Jerusalem Post quoted him as saying.
You have got to be kidding me. Israel is not only fighting an uphill battle in the world media, but their major cable provider is ready to put money in the pockets of the most virulently anti-Israel network this side of Hezbollah and Hamas-TV?
It was unclear whether HOT’s disclosure this week of its talks with Al-Jazeera – dubbed “Terror TV” by some for its broadcast of videotapes by Osama bin Laden on its main Arabic-language channel – is simply a way to force CNN to back down in the current contract talks.
Earlier this year, the cable company successfully renegotiated new and more lucrative contracts with BBC Prime, National Geographic and Fox Sports after it announced its intention to drop them from programming.
Here’s hoping. Because I don’t want to believe that Israelis are truly that dumb.
There are two main cable TV companies in Israel, Hot and Yes. I don’t know about Hot, but the Yes basic package of channels includes Al Jazeera English (along with CNN, BBC, CCTV, France 24, Fox News, Sky News and other European news channels) and Al Jazeera in Arabic (along with many other Arabic channels from different Arab countries).
It’s no big deal, especially since Al Jazeera isn’t any more biased or any more obsessed with Israel than the BBC or CNN. The decision to include or to exclude a channel are made on financial, not political grounds, except in the case of enemy states such as Syria and Iran.
It’s funny how the Jerusalem Post can be so disconnected at times with the reality in Israel.
Nah. It’s all about money in this case. HOT – the provider in question – are going overboard with pennypinching lately to show a positive balance.
Saying this, I am using them for all three major services: TV, Internet, phone.
Oh, well…
I don’t have cable, but even so I’m of two minds. One says: good riddance. The other says: we should keep CNN because someone’s got to keep tabs on them and write in to protest when necessary.
Al-Jazeera: Feh.
Al Jazeera? CNN? Is there a difference?
At my Minneapolis JCC health club, we have 4 TV sets in the aerobics area.
Invariably, two or more are always tuned to CNN, I do not understand why?
We Jews are so programmed that we continue to vote liberal Democrat even though that party is moving in an anti Israel direction and is insulting to Jews that believe in Israel!
I refuse to watch CNN any longer, the first thing I do is switch to FOX news when I arrive.
What. Again? This happens every few years and, as Snoopy says, it’s all about money.
2002 version: