Comcast to Air Pro-Israel TV Show to Counter Al Jazeera

Beginning Sunday, August 30, at 7 a.m., Comcast will air a half-hour TV program devoted to news about the Middle East. The show, run by the so-called Israel News Network (INN), will be unabashedly pro-Israel and makes no secret of its aim: to counter the growing influence of Al Jazeera,...

By Deirdra Funcheon

July 13, 2009

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Beginning Sunday, August 30, at 7 a.m., Comcast will air a half-hour TV program devoted to news about the Middle East. The show, run by the so-called Israel News Network (INN), will be unabashedly pro-Israel and makes no secret of its aim: to counter the growing influence of Al Jazeera, which began as a TV station in Qatar (it was essentially the Arab world's CNN) and has morphed into a worldwide news network.

A news release states, "Each INN program would feature a segment that is related to the Al Jazeera report of the week that INN will expand upon. For example, if Al Jazeera reports that Israeli checkpoints don't allow Palestinians to get proper medical care, INN would run a feature about IDF medics who work in the West Bank and treat EVERYONE who needs help, even injured terrorists."

Little information is available about INN, but the show is "supported by" Freedom Watch, a conservative nonprofit organization founded by Miami- and Boca Raton-based lawyer Larry Klayman, who, in his efforts to fight corruption and "preserve freedom," has sued the Clintons, Dick Cheney, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Freedom Watch's missions include abolishing the United Nations ("a bastion for terrorist nations"); stopping the "Obama-Clinton crowd" from "turning the United States into a Euro-style socialist state"; and forcing the government to open its files about extraterrestrials ("It is important for our citizens to know the truth so we can prepare for the day when [an extraterrestrial visit] openly occurs, to prevent worldwide panic.")

Thomas J. Madden, a spokesperson for INN, did not immediately return a call for comment.

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