Two Middle East Journalists Quit Fox

In a scathing and accusatory resignation letter sent to FOX News this past week, two female journalists based in the Middle East expressed exactly what they think about that broadcaster's so-called 'fair and balanced' coverage.

Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2006

Dear All,

We would like to announce our resignation from Fox News in Amman. Although we never actually worked for your organization, we helped for the past three years in facilitating your work in the Middle East.

We base our decision on moral issues. We can no longer work with a news organization that claims to be fair and balanced when you are so far from that. Not only are you an instrument of the Bush White House, and Israeli propaganda, you are war mongers with no sense of decency, nor professionalism. You have crossed all borders and red lines. An Arab mother cries over the death of her child very much like an American and Israeli mother.

Arab blood is not cheap, and we are not barbarians. You ought to be more responsible and have more decency when you take one side against the other. You have a role to play and a responsibility to shoulder for the sake of your very naive viewers.

Throughout the three years we worked with you, and helped you, we thought you would develop a degree of respect to people in this part of the world. But the disdain and blatant one-sided coverage of all Mideast conflicts only highlights your total lack of humanity and bias toward Israel. Your lack of professionalism has made you a tool of ridicule throughout the world. Your inexperienced anchors with their racist comments are not only a shameful scar on the American Media, they simply represent state run Television networks in countries you despise in the Middle East.

Finally, our decision again is based on moral and professional basis and from now on we will no longer help in any Fox related matters.

Serene Sabbagh

Jomana Karadsheh

This letter was apparently sent to several reporters but a quick search shows that very few actually picked up the story.

FOX's agenda is well-known to those who follow the network's bias, of course. It's the White House's favourite television channel and Dick Cheney is their number one fan. So, playing the propaganda sockpuppet is to be expected. But, when the network pulls stunts like denying that Israel was responsible for the Qana bombings even after the IDF admitted it and continues hosting hateful right-wing blowhards like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, is it any wonder that any respectable journalist would decided to disassociate themselves from the network?

In the case of Sabbagh and Karadsheh, I'm not sure why it took them 3 years to see the truth about FOX, but they deserve credit for finally doing so and making such a strong statement as they flee to sanity elsewhere. Best of luck to both of them.