This should be fun! Mohammed Hassanein Haykal, unquestionably the most influential Arab journalist ever, has signed a blockbuster deal to come out of retirement at the tender age of 81 with Al Jazeera:
"According to Jihad Balout, Al-Jazeera 's PR director, Heikal has already recorded nine episodes in the station's Cairo studio which tackle current events in the region. The first episode... will explain why he returned and why he chose Al- Jazeera . Sources close to Heikal say he will argue that he selected the station not only because of its influence and popularity in the Arab world, but because US President George W Bush, in his efforts to improve America's image after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, refused to address the Arabs through Al-Jazeera , opting for the US- funded Al-Hurra and the Saudi-funded Al- Arabiya stations instead . "By doing so Heikal is effectively dismissing accusations [in the Arab world] levelled against Al-Jazeera that it serves American interests," Ayman El-Sayyad, managing editor of the cultural monthly Wujhat Nazar (Points of View) ,which published Heikal's articles since 1999 until his retirement, told Al-Ahram Weekly."
Why Al Jazeera? Because the government's control over Egyptian media left him frustrated: "For many years he published rarely in the Egyptian press, preferring the censorship-free international media instead. Only with the appearance of Wujhat Nazar less than three years ago did Heikal find a regular platform to address the Arab world. Following the launch of Dream, a privately-owned Egyptian TV station in 2001, Heikal agreed to appear on Al-Ustaz , a programme in which he voiced his views on current affairs every three months. Despite, or because of, the popularity of the show (the transcripts were published verbatim in several newspapers and disseminated widely) Heikal's TV talks were not tolerated by the government for long.... Dream came under fire after it aired a lecture Heikal gave at the American University in Cairo (AUC) in which he commented on speculation surrounding the bequeathing of the presidency in Egypt. Heikal reminded the audience that President Hosni Mubarak, and the son around whom the speculation revolves, have both rejected the notion on a number of occasions. Republics, he argued, do not allow for the inheritance of power. It was the last time he appeared on Egyptian TV."
Why Haykal? Ratings, ratings, ratings. Think Bill Clinton hosting a political program, maybe, for comparable viewer interest. It's like peanut butter and chocolate. They're both great, but put them together, and... marketing nirvana.
I, and about 30 million other people, am looking forward to hearing the old man.
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